Data Retention & Deletion

1. Data Minimisation

LYFTOFF follows the principles of data avoidance and data minimisation. We only store personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in our Privacy Policy, or as required by law.

2. Retention Periods

Different types of data are retained for different periods:

• Account data (name, email, profile) — Retained while your account is active. Deleted within 72 hours of account deletion.
• Reflection data (strengths, values, goals) — Encrypted at rest (AES-256). Deleted within 72 hours of account deletion.
• Career roadmap & skill data — Retained while your account is active. Deleted within 72 hours of account deletion.
• Community posts & content — Deleted within 72 hours of account deletion. Replies to your posts are anonymised.
• Support tickets & messages — Retained for 6 months after resolution, then deleted.
• Anonymised analytics — Retained for up to 2 years. Cannot be linked back to individual users.
• Audit logs — Immutable records retained for 2 years for security and compliance purposes.
• Email preferences & consent records — Retained as long as your account is active, plus 30 days after deletion for compliance.

3. Account Deletion

You can delete your account at any time from your profile settings. When you request account deletion:

• All personal data is permanently removed within 72 hours.
• Reflection data, roadmaps, skill profiles, and scholarship matches are deleted.
• Community posts and content you created are removed.
• Your email is removed from all mailing lists.
• Anonymised analytics data (which cannot identify you) is retained.
• Audit logs referencing your account are retained but the personal identifiers are removed.

4. Right to Erasure

Under Article 17 of the GDPR, you have the right to request the erasure of your personal data. You can exercise this right by deleting your account through the platform settings, or by contacting us directly. We process all erasure requests within 72 hours.

5. Data Export

Before deleting your account, you can export all your personal data from your profile settings. This includes your profile information, reflection data, roadmap progress, skill assessments, and any content you have created. The export is provided in a standard, machine-readable format (JSON).

6. Institutional & Parent Data

If your account is linked to an institution or a parent/guardian account:

• Institutional access — Only anonymised cohort statistics are shared. When your account is deleted, your data is removed from cohort aggregations.
• Parent access — Parents only see aggregated progress metrics. When your account is deleted, parent visibility is immediately revoked.

7. Backup & Recovery

Our database backups are retained for up to 30 days. When you delete your account, your data is marked for deletion in all backups. After the 30-day backup retention window, your data is completely purged from all systems.

8. Legal Holds

In rare cases, we may be required by law to retain certain data beyond the normal retention period (e.g. ongoing legal proceedings or regulatory investigations). In such cases, we will retain only the minimum data necessary and will inform you where legally permitted.

9. Contact

If you have questions about data retention or wish to request data deletion, please contact us at:

privacy@lyftoff.tech