Data Deletion & Retention

Admin APIs for enforcing data retention policies — delete stored token mappings and audit records after a defined retention window.

Protecto provides admin-only APIs to enforce data retention policies by deleting stored data mappings and audit records after a specified time window. All deletion operations run asynchronously and return a tracking ID.

Data deletion APIs are not available on trial accounts. A paid subscription and Namespace Admin token with metadata_change permission are required.

What can be deleted

Data type	Description	Typical use
Personal Data Mappings	Stored mappings between clear text and tokens for pseudonymizable entities	Required for unmasking — delete to enforce right-to-erasure
Audit Records	Logs of API calls, users, payloads, and responses	Compliance, forensics, reporting — delete after retention window

How deletion works

All deletion requests:

Run as background jobs
Return a tracking_id
Can be monitored via the job status API

You can delete records older than:

A specific date (YYYY-MM-DD)
A duration in days (e.g., 90 for records older than 90 days)

Compliance use cases

Regulation	Requirement	Protecto API
GDPR Article 17	Right to erasure	Delete personal data mappings
GDPR Article 5	Storage limitation	Schedule deletion after retention window
SOC 2	Data retention controls	Background deletion with auditable tracking
HIPAA	Minimum necessary rule	Delete PHI token mappings after use

Deletion is irreversible. Deleting personal data mappings removes the ability to unmask those tokens. Ensure this is intentional and aligned with your retention policy.

API reference

Delete Personal Data

Delete stored text-to-token mappings older than a date or duration.

Delete Audit Records

Delete audit log records older than a date or duration.

Track Deletion Jobs

Monitor the status of async deletion jobs.

Was this page helpful?