Data Retention Policies

   Journey Manager (JM) The transaction engine for the platform.  |    System Manager / DevOps  |  All versions This feature is related to all versions.

Manager provides you with two modes of data retention policy: strict and relaxed. Each policy determines the default data retention management configuration at the environment level, which are used throughout the Manager server, unless data retention is configured at the organization or form level. The policy mode is selected during a Manager installation or upgrade.

To check the data retention policy mode of your environment:

1. Select System > System Info.
2. Scroll down to the Build Properties section and look for data.retention.policy, as shown below:

   

We recommend using the strict mode to constrain the potential amount of data retained within Manager by restricting the maximum age of transaction data. It prevents problems related to long data retention, such as:

• Database growth
• Performance degradation
• Prolonged storage of sensitive PIIPersonally Identifiable Information (PII) is information about an individual that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual‘s identity, such as name, social security number, date and place of birth, mother‘s maiden name, or biometric records; and any other information that is linked to an individual. In Europe, PII is known as personal data. data

Both the strict and relaxed modes apply the global default settings to data retention configuration. To view and configure the default settings, check one of the following settings below:

• Global data retention configuration
• The Organization's Data Management tab for a specific organization
• The Form's Details tab for a specific form

The default settings can be individually configured with a value that can't exceed the maximum value defined for each property.

When you configure data retention policies in Manager, you need to consider the following:

• Optimal conversion rate – a user must be given an adequate time to return to and complete a transaction
• System efficiency – a lean database makes a Journey Manager a more responsive system
• Privacy – PIIPersonally Identifiable Information (PII) is information about an individual that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual‘s identity, such as name, social security number, date and place of birth, mother‘s maiden name, or biometric records; and any other information that is linked to an individual. In Europe, PII is known as personal data. data must be retained for the shortest possible time to minimize any potential security risks

Manager keeps data only for as long as it is required within the transaction life cycle. It is recommended to use the strictest possible data retention management policy to avoid excessive data base growth and potential problems during any recurring Manager upgrades.

However, often it is a balancing act between maintaining a lean, well performing and responsive system, while providing an adequate time frame for users to return to and complete their submitted forms. After sufficient time, given to users to complete their transactions, has elapsed, all incomplete transactions are automatically abandoned.

PII data is automatically purged from the transactions soon after the user has submitted their form to minimize any potential security risk. It’s recommended to use the strict data retention policy for any production Manager instances.

In some cases, you may want to change the data retention policy mode of your environment to test your data retention procedures. Switching relaxed to strict has no impact, but it all depends on how much you reduced retention days by. For example, if you want to have 180 days to start with and plan go back to 30 days after that, we recommend reducing days to 150, 120, 90, 60 and then 30. Keep at least 1 day between these changes to allow the Transaction Processing scheduled job to purge records in small batches.

Strict vs Relaxed Mode

There are differences between the strict and relaxed modes for the various data types. This is outlined below:

Saved Transactions

This setting determines how long to keep user saved transactions before they are abandoned by Manager and become finished transactions. The Manager environment setting is initially set to the default, but you can change it to any value that doesn't exceed the maximum. Organization and form level settings can be used to override the environment settings. However, they cannot exceed the maximum value.

• Strict Mode: default is 30 days, maximum is 180 days
• Relaxed Mode: default is 30 days, maximum is 2 years

Finished Transactions with PII Data

This setting determines how long to keep data entered by the user before it is deleted. The Manager environment setting is initially set to the default, but you can change it to any value that doesn’t exceed the maximum. Organization and form level settings can be used to override the environment settings. However, they cannot exceed the maximum value.

• Strict Mode: default is 7 days, maximum is 30 days
• Relaxed Mode: default is 7 days, maximum is 2 years

Finished Transactions

This setting determines how long to keep finished transactions before they are deleted. Finished transactions include transactions that have been marked as abandoned or completed. The Manager environment setting is initially set to the default, but you can change it to any value that doesn’t exceed the maximum. Organization and form level settings can be used to override the environment settings. However, they cannot exceed the maximum value.

• Strict Mode: default is 90 days, maximum is 2 years
• Relaxed Mode: default is 90 days, maximum is 5 years

Finished Collaboration Jobs

This setting determines how long to keep finished collaboration jobs before they are deleted. The Manager environment setting is initially set to the default, but you can change it to any value that doesn’t exceed the maximum . Organization and form level settings can be used to override the environment settings. However, they cannot exceed the maximum value.

• Strict Mode: default is 90 days, maximum is 2 years
• Relaxed Mode: default is 90 days, maximum is 2 years

Submission Data Extracts

This setting determines how long to keep submission data extracts before they are deleted. You can't override this setting, unless it's Manager version prior to 17.10 and it's in the relaxed mode.

• Strict Mode: default is 7 days, maximum is 30 days
• Relaxed Mode: default is 7 days, maximum is 2 years

Submission Properties

The setting determines how long to keep submission properties before they are deleted. You can't override this setting, unless it's Manager version prior to 17.10 and it's in the relaxed mode.

• Strict Mode: default is 7 days, maximum is 30 days
• Relaxed Mode: default is 7 days, maximum is 2 years

Next, learn about data retention schedule.