Data retention and deletion

Overview

This article explains what happens to your organization’s information when a subscription ends, how long information is kept, and how permanent deletion works. Canceling the next subscription renewal, ending one user’s account, and requesting deletion of all organization data are separate actions.

Deactivating an employee, making a job code unavailable, or archiving an approved position in an active organization is not permanent deletion. These actions preserve the item and its history so it can be reviewed and, when appropriate, made available, reactivated, or restored. Permanent organization deletion follows the account-level process described below.

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When a subscription ends

Canceling a paid subscription stops its next renewal and takes effect at the end of the current paid billing period. It does not itself request data deletion. When paid access actually ends or a subscription expires, your organization enters a 90-day grace period. During this period:

• All of your data (positions, employees, departments, approval history, etc.) is fully preserved.
• Access to FTE Tree is restricted until the subscription is renewed.
• You can resubscribe at any time during the grace period to restore full access with all data intact.

If no action is taken within the 90-day grace period, your organization becomes eligible for data anonymization.

Data anonymization

After the grace period, FTE Tree reviews your organization’s status and confirms that data removal should proceed. Once confirmed, the following occurs:

• Organization data is permanently deleted: positions, employees, departments, job codes, approval requests, reports, messages, uploaded files, and all associated information.
• Activity history records are anonymized: event dates and types are preserved, but personally identifiable information such as names, descriptions, and notes is removed.
• Limited billing and account history is retained: identifying information, addresses, and payment details are removed. Only anonymized information needed for disputes, legal duties, and account history remains.

This process is irreversible. Once anonymization is complete, your organization data cannot be recovered.

Retention of anonymized records

Anonymized activity and billing records are retained for approximately 7 years after anonymization to meet financial record-keeping and compliance obligations. During this retention period:

• No personally identifiable information is stored.
• Only the limited anonymized history described above remains.
• These records cannot be used to identify any individual.

After the 7-year retention period, the remaining anonymized information is permanently deleted.

Activity and security record retention

FTE Tree keeps different types of activity history and retained records for different lengths of time:

• Activity history records, such as position changes, approval actions, user updates, and other business-history entries, are retained for the lifetime of your organization’s account. These records appear in activity history pages and are available for reporting when your permissions allow it.

• Security and account activity records such as sign-ins and access-related events are retained for 730 days.

• Notification delivery records such as email delivery outcomes are retained for 90 days.

These records are subject to the anonymization process described above when a subscription ends and the grace period expires.

Report data retention

Generated report results and attached files are kept for your organization’s report-retention period. The standard period is 90 days and cannot be changed in organization settings. When a report expires, its preview and download are no longer available, and you can run the report again to create a current result. The generated result files are removed, while report history continues to show the request and expiration.

A period of 0 means reports are kept indefinitely. This is an exception for an approved contractual, regulatory, or legal need, not the standard policy.

Reports do not expire while they are pending or running. An expired report remains unavailable after its generated result files have been removed.

Organization summaries remain with your organization’s data until someone with access changes them or the account is deleted.

Legal holds

In certain situations (such as pending litigation or regulatory investigations), your organization may be placed under a Legal hold. While a legal hold is active:

• Data anonymization is blocked, regardless of subscription status or grace period.
• Permanent deletion is blocked, even if the retention period has passed.
• Information is kept until the hold is lifted.

Legal holds are handled by FTE Tree after a verified request and are typically applied at the request of legal counsel.

Requesting immediate deletion

If you need your organization’s data removed before the standard grace period, contact FTE Tree support or email support@ftetree.com. FTE Tree can expedite the anonymization process after verifying the request.

Summary