What is a data retention policy?
The written rule that decides how long your organisation keeps each kind of record, who owns that decision, and what happens when the period ends.
Data retention policy meaning: a data retention policy is an internal document stating how long an organisation keeps each category of record, on what legal or business basis, where it is stored, who is accountable, and how it is disposed of at the end of that period. It is paired with a retention schedule — the table that lists each record category against its period and basis. The policy sets the rules; the schedule applies them.
What a data retention policy must contain
A policy that an auditor accepts covers seven things: the scope and record categories, a retention period for each with the legal or business basis behind it, storage location and format, the disposal method, named ownership, how a legal hold overrides the schedule, and a review date. The weakest policies state periods without stating why — a number with no source is the first thing a reviewer challenges.
Retention policy or retention schedule?
They are different documents and both are needed. The data retention policy carries the principles, the authority and the accountability. The retention schedule is the operational table: each record category, its period, and the basis for that period. A policy without a schedule cannot be followed; a schedule without a policy has nothing standing behind it when someone asks why a record was destroyed.
How it differs from a privacy policy
A privacy policy faces outward: it tells data subjects what you collect, why, and — as a required section — how long you keep it. A data retention policy faces inward: it tells your own people when to delete. The two have to agree, and drift between them is common, because the privacy notice gets updated for a regulator while the internal schedule quietly does not. GDPR document drafting · compliance documentation
Where GDPR fits
Storage limitation is a GDPR principle in its own right: personal data may be kept only as long as the stated purpose requires. That makes retention a compliance obligation rather than a housekeeping preference, and it is why Article 30 records of processing carry retention and erasure time limits as an explicit field. If your Article 30 record says one period and your schedule says another, the inconsistency is the finding. What compliance management involves
Drafting one you can defend
Gixo Lex drafts a data retention policy as a reviewable first draft — retention is a required section of the privacy policy structure, retention and erasure limits are modelled in the Article 30 record, and a standalone policy can be drafted through the custom document path from the requirements you supply. The retention periods themselves must come from you or your counsel: Gixo does not determine statutory minimums, and the output goes to a qualified reviewer before adoption. Legal documents for startups