The retention period allows you to delete (personal) data in ongoing investigations. For example, you can comply with privacy legislation (GDPR) or provide data delete items you no longer need. After the set retention period research data will be deleted. You can find the retention period in the menu via 'Survey' and 'Retention period'.
It is possible to set a retention period at:
- the login column of the survey. The login column is deleted after 24 months by default;
- the answers given from the survey;
- the imported data enrichment of the research. The data enrichment is removed by default after 24 months.
For each study, you can set a retention period of 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months or 24 months or an unlimited retention period for the above three components. With the unlimited retention period you can undo the default retention period of 24 months. For each component, the moment at which:
- a respondent has been added (for the login column);
- a respondent has provided an answer (for the answers given);
- the data enrichment per column has been added (before the data enrichment).
If the data with the retention period has been deleted, you will find the following values in return the result files:
- Login column: a code of numbers and numbers (a so-called GUID);
- Data enrichment: -98
- Answers given: n.v.t.
Depending on the set retention period, data is stored retroactively power removed. Note: Once deleted, data cannot be recovered.
An example:
- a respondent was added to a survey on 1 January;
- a retention period of 3 months has been set in the login column;
- on April 1, the respondent's login column will be removed. The other data of the respondent are saved.
The retention period can be adjusted at any time or changed to an unlimited retention period. Data once deleted cannot be recovered.
Surveys older than 5 years
All surveys with an end date older than 5 years will be automatically removed from Crowdtech Survey. If you want to exclude studies from this, change the end date of the study.
Retain surveys
To exclude a survey from deletion, set a different end date. An end date in the distant future is possible, please note that respondents can take part of the survey again. An end date until yesterday ensures that your survey has been saved for another 5 years.