Decide how long the signatories' personal data is kept
Personal data may not be kept forever just in case. As the petition author you are the data controller, so you set the retention period: five years from the creation of the petition, or a deletion date of your own. The choice is published in the petition's privacy policy, so signatories know before they sign.
The two options
| Option | What it means |
|---|---|
| 5 years | The personal data of the signatories is deleted no later than five years after the creation of the petition. |
| Define manually | You choose the date by which the personal data will be deleted at the latest. It must be in the future and at most ten years from today. |
The setting is called Retention period for the personal data of signatories. New petitions have no preselected answer: this is a decision you make, not one you inherit.
Where to find it
- On the create page, go to the step Signatories.
- Pick the starting point Define manually, or press Edit the fields and data purposes if you started from the popular choices.
- Choose 5 years or Define manually under the retention question. With the manual option, pick the date in The date by which the personal data of the signatories will be deleted.
The popular choices start from a retention period of up to five years from the creation of the petition. You can change the choice later from Edit in the petition menu.
Why the period is tied to the petition, not to each signature
The five years run from the day the petition was created, so the whole signature list reaches its deadline together. A petition exists to hand over all of its signatures at once, and a rolling per-signature deletion would quietly erase the earliest names from a long campaign before the hand-over.
Extending the period
If a campaign is still live when the deadline approaches, you can move the date. The edit form then asks you to explain why, and that explanation is published on the petition so signatories can see why their data is still being processed. Shortening the period never requires an explanation. By accepting the Data Processing Agreement you also commit to reviewing once a year whether there is still a legal basis for keeping the data.
Limits and good to know
- The petition itself and its signature count remain. It is the personal data of the signatories that is removed.
- You can remove or anonymize the signatures at any time from Remove all the signatures in the petition menu. After that the signatures can no longer be printed or downloaded.
- Old petitions that nobody is working on any more have the personal data of their signatories anonymized automatically.
- Once you have downloaded a signature list, the copy on your own computer is your responsibility, not ours.
- If you give the address of your own privacy policy, the retention period is explained there instead, on your page.
Questions and answers
Which option should I choose?
If you do not know how long the campaign will run, five years is the simple answer. If the petition is tied to one decision, set the deletion date a little after that decision is due.
How far ahead can the deletion date be?
At most ten years from today, and it has to be in the future.
Where do signatories see my choice?
In the petition's privacy policy, which is linked from the signature form. It names the retention period and the date by which the data is deleted.
Can I extend the period later?
You can, but you have to explain why, and your explanation is published on the petition. European data protection law requires a current purpose for keeping personal data.
Can I delete the personal data sooner?
Yes. "Remove all the signatures" in the petition menu lets you remove or anonymize them whenever you want.