Retention & deletion
Data Retention & Deletion Policy
- Operator:
- Science Communications Worldwide
- Effective:
- 2 October 2026
- Version:
- 2.6 · Earlier versions
In short
Principles
Retention follows the GDPR’s storage-limitation principle (Article 5(1)(e)): every category of data has either a fixed period or a criterion tied to its purpose. Three purposes justify longer retention: the integrity of the public scholarly record, the security of the platform, and legal obligations including the ability to demonstrate consent and to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
Retention schedule
| Category | Retention | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Account identity (email, sign-in identities, settings) | While the account exists, then the 30-day restoration window | Erased or irreversibly de-linked at purge (Section 3) |
| Record of the document versions you accepted (Terms, Privacy Notice, Content Posting and Use Policy) | While the account exists | Deleted with the account |
| Sign-in sessions | Session token valid for 15 minutes; refresh token valid for 7 days. The server-side session record, which holds the pseudonymised fields described in the Privacy Notice, is kept until the account is deleted | Active device sessions are listed in Settings → Security and can be revoked at any time |
| Passkey and sign-in challenges | Minutes | Deleted automatically when the sign-in ceremony completes or expires |
| Profile content (biography, interests, CV documents) | Until you edit or remove it, at latest until account purge | Most fields are directly editable in your settings |
| Published listings and hosted research content | Lifetime of the scholarly record | Submissions are de-linked from your identity if your account is deleted. An account that still owns an event listing (including any seminar it posted) or a job posting cannot be deleted until that listing is deleted under Your posts or transferred on request; removal on request where rights require it |
| DOI-registered metadata | The DOI identifier remains resolvable; associated personal metadata is kept only while justified | A removed item’s DOI resolves to a tombstone. Metadata can be corrected or reduced where applicable rights require it |
| Job applications made through an earlier version of World Wide | Until you delete your account or the job posting is deleted | Deleted in the purge; the employer’s received copy is under the employer’s responsibility |
| Consent records (accept/reject decisions) | As long as needed to demonstrate compliance | Kept as proof under Art. 7(1) GDPR |
| Usage analytics (opt-in) | Raw records: 26 months | A daily transactional job purges overdue rows and records counts and cutoffs. Aggregate content metrics and consent evidence are excluded |
| PostHog session replay (opt-in) | 30 days under the current recording-retention setting | Recordings expire automatically. A retention-setting change applies only to new recordings |
| Application, worker, API, and firewall logs | 7 days (logs of the retired release-build system up to 30 days) | Application records use keyed network hashes; firewall records contain full IP addresses, and logs of automated traffic that is being slowed down record the network address it comes from |
| Request traces (about 3% of requests) | 30 days | Each trace holds the requested address without its query string, the browser identification string, and timings; no IP address. Traces recorded before this revision took effect also hold the full address and the IP address until they expire |
| Load-balancer access logs | 90 days | Requested address, browser identification string, response status, and timings; the network address recorded is our content delivery network’s, not yours |
| Security audit trail (sign-ins, security changes, administrative actions) | Retained long-term, append-only | When an account is deleted, entries lose their reference to it as the acting user; entries about the account keep its internal identifier. Kept to investigate abuse and defend claims |
| Unfinished material | Abandoned sign-ups ≈ 24 hours; failed FENS 2026 poster uploads 24 hours; rejected FENS 2026 poster uploads 30 days | Cleaned up automatically, including the underlying files |
| Support requests, reports, and feedback | As long as needed to resolve the matter, plus any legally required audit period | |
| Database backups | Automated backups: 7 days; manual recovery snapshots: see Section 5 | Recovery copies are restricted and are not used for ordinary processing |
Account deletion, step by step
You can delete your account yourself under Settings → Privacy & data. Because deletion is irreversible after the window, the request requires a recent sign-in and, where enabled, your second factor. An account that still owns an event listing (including any seminar it posted) or a job posting, or is the last owner of an organisation page, must first delete those listings under Your posts or ask us to transfer them (Section 2). The process:
- Immediately: the account is marked for deletion, every active session on every device is signed out, sign-in is blocked, your public profile is hidden, and a 30-day restoration window begins. During that window we can restore the account on request, after verifying your identity; write to the contact address below.
- After 30 days: an automated purge erases the account. Identity data, profile, settings, saved items, follows, alerts, likes and ratings, notes, comments, profile updates, sign-in identities, passkeys, and two-factor material are deleted. Uploaded profile media and personal storage are removed; a file that is also part of published content stays with that content. Your job applications are deleted. A public speaker page linked to the account is stripped to “Deleted user” with all identifying fields cleared.
- De-linking: records that must survive for the integrity of the platform — published submissions, blog posts and their comments, attendance and viewing records, the moderation trail, pseudonymised analytics, and the security audit ledger — lose their reference to your account rather than being destroyed. Security audit entries about the account itself keep its internal identifier (Section 2).
- Receipt: the purge records a content-free deletion receipt and hashed receipts for deleted files (one-way hashes) proving the erasure took place.
If you cannot access your account, request deletion by email from the address associated with it: info@world-wide.org.
What deletion does not remove
- The scholarly record: listings and hosted work remain published in de-linked or attributed form as appropriate. A DOI remains resolvable, normally to a tombstone after withdrawal, but its personal metadata is not categorically exempt from correction, restriction, or erasure (Section 2). Ask us about removing or anonymising a specific published item — rights under the Privacy Notice apply.
- Backups: copies persist in the automated backups until those cycle out (7 days after the purge). Manual recovery snapshots can remain longer as described below.
- Legal holds: where a legal obligation or an ongoing dispute requires retention, the affected records are kept restricted until the obligation ends.
Backups
The production database is backed up automatically on a rolling 7-day cycle. Manual snapshots may be retained beyond that cycle for a migration, recovery, or documented legal hold. They remain restricted and are removed when that specific need ends. Backups exist for recovery only and are not used to resurrect deleted data.
Targeted deletion requests
You do not need to delete an account to have specific data removed — this applies equally to people without an account who are named in hosted content (see Privacy Notice, Section 3.3). Email info@world-wide.org with the URL of the material. We normally answer within one month; for a complex request the GDPR permits up to two further months after notice. Where we must retain something (for example, for legal claims or the integrity of the citation record), we will say so and restrict it instead where the GDPR provides for that.
Questions
Email info@world-wide.org. The contact page lists what to include for each kind of request.