What is a data retention policy?
In Microsoft 365, a data retention policy is a set of rules that govern how long data is retained in apps like Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Teams, and other services.
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A data retention policy helps organizations manage information lifecycle needs, comply with various legal and regulatory requirements, and enforce secure data management practices.
Key features of Microsoft 365 data retention policies
- Retention labels let you categorize content based on its type or sensitivity so you can apply specific retention rules.
- Retention periods let you determine how long content is preserved before deletion, regardless of whether users delete it manually.
- Preservation policies are useful for preventing modification or deletion of data during its retention period, ensuring compliance with legal holds or investigations.
- Auto-deletion gives you the ability to automatically delete content once its retention period ends to reduce storage costs and minimize risk.
Examples of retention scenarios in Microsoft 365
- Email retention: You can set a policy to retain all emails for seven years to comply with financial regulations, even if users delete them.
- Teams chats: You can, for example, retain chat messages for one year while automatically deleting older messages to manage storage efficiently.
- SharePoint files: Depending on your criteria, you can apply a retention policy to preserve project documents for three years after the project ends.
