Give deletion a date

Retention should follow the task. A one-week team check-in rarely needs indefinite storage. Set the closing and deletion dates before the first invitation so respondents can evaluate the boundary.

“As long as necessary” is not a useful respondent-facing answer unless the purpose and necessity test are also clear.

Deleting the live survey may not delete CSV exports, emailed summaries, screenshots, backups, support attachments, or copied analysis documents. The survey owner needs a plan for those downstream copies.

Automatic application expiry reduces forgotten data but does not reach exports already downloaded by the owner. State that distinction rather than presenting platform deletion as universal erasure.

Show the remaining days to respondents and owners. A visible clock prevents the retention promise from becoming invisible fine print.

CandorKit sets a seven-day database expiry, rejects new responses after expiry, and runs a scheduled cleanup. Results exported before that moment become the owner’s responsibility and are outside the automatic deletion boundary.