NIPO is pleased to announce the introduction of its survey-level data retention policy feature. Designed to simplify the management of long-running trackers, or waves, this feature can be set to automatically clean out Online survey data after a specified number of days.
- Never (default): no survey data will be automatically deleted.
- 30 days: automatically deletes any survey data that’s more than 30 days old.
- 60 days: automatically deletes any survey data that’s more than 60 days old.
- 90 days: automatically deletes any survey data that’s more than 90 days old.
These settings are in the Nfield Manager under the Setup survey/Retention tab. They can be configured separately for each survey, so storage practices can be tailored to specific project needs.
Benefits of implementing a survey-level data retention policy
Setting and adhering to data retention periods aids compliance and data governance, while also simplifying long-running trackers and mitigating risks associated with prolonged data storage and privacy breaches.
- Compliance: Adhering to regulatory requirements such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is crucial in today’s data-driven landscape. Establishing and enforcing appropriate data retention periods ensures compliance with these regulations, thereby mitigating legal risks.
- Data governance: Effective data governance practices demand clear policies around data retention. By defining specific retention periods, organizations can maintain data integrity, optimize storage resources, and streamline data lifecycle management processes.
- Risk management: Implementing proper data retention practices is essential for mitigating risks associated with prolonged data storage and potential privacy breaches. By automatically removing outdated data, organizations can reduce the likelihood of security vulnerabilities and maintain compliance with data protection laws.
- Simplifying long-running trackers: Seamlessly managed trackers clean-up eliminates the effort and hassle of manually removing outdated information. Long-running trackers can stay dedicated to a single survey, while long-running surveys remain organized, focused, clutter-free and up-to-date, without manual intervention.
Which data is automatically removed?
Based on the selected retention period, the following data will be removed automatically:
- Interview data (e.g. .dat, o-file, paradata, audit log) that has not changed for the specified number of days.
- Sample data for this interview (untouched sample data is not deleted).
- Survey packages (script, media files, settings) that have been superseded by a newer package for more than the specified number of days (the latest package is never deleted).
- Quota frames that have been superseded by a newer quota frame for more than the specified number of days.
Important notes
- The default setting is NEVER. Nfield users are always in control. Data will never be automatically removed unless a specific retention period has been set.
- Once data has been removed, it is permanently deleted along with its associated artifacts (scripts, data, quotas, media files, etc.), and cannot be restored.
- This feature is currently only available for Nfield Online surveys.
Elevate your research game with Nfield
Survey-level data retention policy is just one of the many tools Nfield equips you with to take your market research to the next level. Say hello to streamlined processes, enhanced efficiency, and control over your data retention policies.
