Users don’t need perfect privacy marketing — they need clear defaults and predictable behavior. A simple retention policy is often better than a vague “we respect your privacy.”
In practice, retention is about reducing blast radius. The less you store, the less you can leak. For many verification-style tools, you can design the system so user inputs are processed and discarded, while operational logs remain minimal and time-bounded.
A conservative baseline
- Don’t store user-submitted content by default.
- Keep security/availability logs, but minimize payload and duration.
- Separate operational logs from any content storage (different systems, different controls).
- Document exceptions (e.g., abuse prevention, legal obligations) plainly.
A simple template you can adopt
- Inputs: processed to compute results; not stored by default.
- Operational logs: limited fields (timestamp, request id, status, latency); retained for a short window.
- Abuse prevention: limited metadata to rate-limit and prevent denial-of-service.
- Support: user-submitted tickets may include content you choose to provide; retained as long as needed to resolve the issue.
If users can’t tell what happens to their input, they assume the worst. A short retention statement in your product UI (not only a legal page) reduces uncertainty and increases adoption.
- States whether inputs are stored by default.
- States log retention duration.
- Explains third-party processors (if any).
- Explains how to request deletion or contact support.
How to keep policies aligned with reality
A retention policy only builds trust if it matches system behavior. Operationally, that means making storage explicit: what gets stored, where, for how long, and how it’s deleted. If you cannot confidently answer those questions, tighten defaults and simplify the architecture.