Is there any relevant settings available to customize the no of days value in data retention ? Also what will be the default value for no of days if the user doesn’t provide the custom settings?
AI-generated summary
The discussion revolves around customizing the number of days in the data retention policy within Discourse. ramyani asks about available settings and the default value for the retention period if no custom settings are provided. simon explains that the value depends on the hosting provider and references a meta discussion about data retention, including IP address deletion, server log retention (possibly 90 days), and backup file retention (30 days for hosted sites). Simon suggests that site owners should receive guidance on the appropriate retention period and questions whether existing documentation covers this. ramyani thanks Simon for the detailed response.
Hi @ramyani, my understanding is that the appropriate value for the [NUMBER OF DAYS] placeholder that’s found in the default Discourse privacy policy is dependent on your hosting provider.
I have a few questions about it that I’d like to get answered.
Looking at: Data retention claims in default privacy topic. It was suggested by the Discourse team that a daily job should be run that deletes the registration IP address of users after a specific period of time. I’m not sure if that was implemented.
That topic also mentions the retention of server logs. I believe those logs are destroyed by default after a period of 90 days, but I’m unsure of this. I’m also not sure if there is a site setting that controls it.
The other issue that may need to be addressed is how long backup files are kept for hosted Discourse sites. My understanding is that for sites hosted by Discourse, backup files are encrypted and saved for a period of 30 days. This could be different for other hosting providers. For self-hosted sites, the length of time that backup files are saved will be at the discretion of the site owner.
For sites that are hosted by Discourse, it seems to me that the appropriate value of the NUMBER OF DAYS placeholder should be known. For those cases, would it make sense to give site owners some guidance about this? It’s possible that there’s existing documentation about this that I’m not finding.
Thank you Simon for the details 