OT - IT Data retention

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WLeg

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Having a discussion at work and about to set company policy, so looking for a benchmark....and arguing points..

How long do you keep backups for ?
How long do you have to keep backups for ?
Does the right of Subject Access include Backup media ?

There seems to be loads of stuff on the DTI site, but it's not exactly clear....
 
Depends on the data, in corporate manufacturing...

Email communication - 45 days maximum
Day to day paperwork - not greater than 2 years
Financial, Contractual, Legal data - 7 years
Quality data, lot tracability info - 10 years
Asbestos / Chemical waste data - decades / for ever !

From what I've seen / overheard....
Only financial and select H&SE data is mandatory ??
Demonstration of tax / legal compliance is usually limited to 7 yrs
Quality & customer / supplier records are based on business need.
ISO audits require purging of all non-essential data within two years.
Recent court actions suggest best business practice to be that all email is shredded ASAP

Data in any form, including deep-archive is subject to data protection act and you may be requried to produce a copy for inspection upon reasonable request.

Shred casual data and email promptly with no backups.
Our office policy is, wait for it, paste critical emails into MSWord and save or print to hardcopy and file !
 
Its a tricky question this...the government seems to be trying to force companies to retain all data for a very long time.....even ISP's are supposed to keep logs on DHCP leasing for years on end.

Frankly, they dont seem to have a clue as most companies simply do not have enough data storage nor resources to facilitate this.

Good news for the high end storage vendors though ;)
 
That's my problem... company does not want tospend the money...but they might be breaking the law....So need arguments for and against..

Looking through everything, the various goverment depts seem to disagree with each other !!
 

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