Data retention and deletion

This article explains how long data is kept on the Yellax Engineering Platform, how it is handled during your contract, and what happens to it when a contract ends. It covers both the engineering data in your projects and the account data of your users.

It is written to be accurate about what is in place today. Where the platform works differently from what you might expect, we say so plainly.

During your contract

Your data stays as long as you need it. While your contract is active, your data remains available in the platform. There is no automatic expiry or background deletion of project data; data does not disappear on its own.

You control visibility through deactivation, not deletion. When you no longer want certain data to count in your working picture, you deactivate it (an import-layer or specific rows). Deactivated data drops out of views, quality graphs and exports, but it stays in the system and remains visible in the change history. This is deliberate: the platform is built so that nothing is silently lost, and so that you can always trace how data reached its current state. See Recovering from mistakes in DataControl and Change history in DataControl.

It is worth being clear about one point, because it matters for a data-retention assessment: today the platform does not offer a hard delete of data during the contract term. Data is deactivated, not erased. If you have a specific requirement to permanently remove particular data during your contract, contact Yellax support to discuss it, rather than assuming deactivation removes it.

Exporting your data

At any time during your contract, you can export your data from the platform. Export produces a file of your classified data, scoped to a view. This is the mechanism to take your data out of the platform, whether for use in another tool or to retain a copy before a contract ends. See Exchanging data with Typical Manager.

We recommend exporting the data you want to keep before your contract ends, while the platform is still active and you have full access.

When a contract ends

Export first. Before the contract end date, export the data you wish to retain, as described above. While the contract is active you have full access to do this yourself.

Deletion after 30 days. After a contract ends, your data is retained for 30 days and then deleted. This window gives you a buffer to complete any exports or to resolve a renewal without losing data in the meantime. After the 30-day period, the data is removed.

If you need data returned in a particular form, or have questions about the end-of-contract process for your situation, contact Yellax support.

Account and user data

Account data (the users a key-user has added, and their roles) exists to operate the platform for your organisation. Key-users manage users inside the platform during the contract: adding users, changing roles, and removing users who no longer need access. See Managing key-users and roles.

When a contract ends, account data follows the same path as project data: retained for the 30-day window and then deleted.

Backups

Backups exist for technical-incident recovery and are managed by Azure SQL, stored EU geo-redundant, within a backup retention window. Backups are not a separate long-term archive of your data and are not provided on request; they exist so the service can be recovered after a technical incident. See Backup and restore policy.