Delete and erase personal data

Audience: client administrators and event administrators. Applies to: removing people's personal data from Delekit: answering a request from someone to have their data erased, clearing out test registrations, deleting an event, and setting how long your attendees' data is kept.

Delekit gives you two different tools, and it helps to know which is which:

• Delete takes someone off your lists. It can be undone: a deleted attendee can be restored, with their status, until your client's data retention settings erase them (or for good, if it keeps them).
• Erase personal data removes everything that identifies a person, for good. It happens after a wait your client admin chooses, so you can cancel a mistake; after that it can't be undone.

Delekit doesn't choose these periods for you: a client admin sets them, and until they do, Erase personal data and Delete event can't be used (see Setting up your erasure periods).

Erasing never removes the facts your reports count. An erased attendee still counts as a registration with their status, tickets, sessions, check-ins and payments, so your attendee numbers, ticket sales and revenue don't change. What goes is anything that says who they were.

What erasing removes, and what it keeps

Unsent emails to them are cancelled. If they had unsubscribed, their address stays on your unsubscribe list so they aren't emailed again.

Erase one attendee (someone asks for their data to be erased)

1. Open the attendee from Attendees.
2. At the bottom of the page, under Erase personal data, click Erase personal data.
3. Type the attendee's name to confirm, then click Erase personal data.

The page now shows Erasure scheduled and the date their data will be erased (after the wait your client admin chose). Until then:

• nothing more is emailed to them (emails waiting to go are cancelled);
• they stay in your lists and reports, and you can still edit them;
• you can click Cancel erasure at the top of the page to keep their data.

Once it has run, the page shows Personal data erased and the date. It can't be edited, and the attendee can't be restored.

You can erase a deleted attendee too. Tick Show deleted on the Attendees list to find them.

Erase several attendees

1. On Attendees, tick the people (up to 500 at a time).
2. Open Actions and choose Erase personal data.
3. Type ERASE to confirm, then click Erase (for example Erase 3 attendees).

Each of them is erased after the same wait, and can be kept with Cancel erasure on their page until then.

Erase a speaker or a sponsor's team

Speakers and sponsors' team members have a portal account and a profile. On the speaker's or sponsor's page:

• A speaker: under Erase personal data, click Erase personal data and type ERASE. This erases their name, job title, bio, headshot, LinkedIn and other typed answers, and any agreements they signed. It also erases their team's portal accounts and takes them off your event website and app. Their company, sessions and task progress stay.
• A sponsor: the same button erases the people on the sponsor's team: their portal accounts, the emails sent to them and the names they typed to sign agreements. The company's own content stays: its name, logo, descriptions, website and files.
• One person on a team: in Team, click Erase on their row and type ERASE. They leave the team and their portal account is erased.

Someone who also works with another event or organiser on Delekit keeps their account for that other team. They are only removed from yours.

As with attendees, this happens after the wait. Until then the page (or the person's Team row) shows Erasure scheduled with the date, nothing more is emailed to them, and Cancel erasure keeps their data.

Deleted attendees

When you delete an attendee they leave your lists and reports straight away, and you can restore them from Show deleted. Deleted attendees are kept until your client admin turns on Erase deleted attendees; from then on, anyone deleted longer ago than the months they choose is erased automatically.

Deleting an event

Edit event › Delete event removes the event from your lists straight away, and after the period your client admin chose (up to 30 days) erases the personal data of everyone in it: attendees, bookers, speakers' and sponsors' teams, the emails sent to them and their files. The event and its figures (how many registered, tickets sold, revenue) stay in your reporting history.

Until then nothing is emailed for the event, and a client admin can bring it back from Client settings › Data retention: find the event in the list of erasures and click Restore event. It comes back unpublished, with the same people having access.

Choosing how long attendees' data is kept

Unless you choose otherwise, Delekit keeps your events' data for as long as you have an account with us, until you delete it. To have it erased automatically after each event:

1. Go to Client settings › Data retention › Settings.
2. Turn on Erase attendees after each event.
3. Enter the Months after the event ends (from 1 to 120).
4. Click Save changes.

This applies to every event, past ones included: events that ended longer ago than the period you choose are erased within the hour of saving. Edit event shows the date each event's data will be erased.

Setting up your erasure periods

Delekit sets no defaults: a client admin chooses these for all of the client's events. The top of the page, What happens and when, then says in plain words what is erased, and when, for each of them. Until Wait before Erase personal data is set, Erase personal data can't be used; until Keep deleted events is set, events can't be deleted; and until Erase deleted attendees is on, deleted attendees are kept.

1. Go to Client settings › Data retention.
2. Under Settings, set:
   • Wait before Erase personal data: 0 to 30 days. 0 erases within minutes, with no chance to cancel. Remember that a request to be erased must be answered within one month.
   • Erase deleted attendees: turn it on and choose 1 to 120 months after they were deleted, or leave it off to keep deleted attendees until you erase them.
   • Keep deleted events: 0 to 30 days before a deleted event's personal data is erased (0 erases it within minutes). Until then the event can be restored.
3. Click Save changes.

"Erase deleted attendees" applies to people already deleted: anyone deleted longer ago than the months you choose is erased within the hour. Erasures already scheduled keep their date.

Seeing what has been erased

Client settings › Data retention lists every erasure: when, what it covered, why, and how many people. It never shows who they were. Waiting until a date means it is scheduled and can still be cancelled on the person's page; Erased means it's done; Erased (files being removed) means the data is gone and the last stored files are being cleared; Cancelled means it was cancelled before it ran.

Common questions

Can I undo an erasure? Until it runs (after the wait your client admin chose), yes: click Cancel erasure on their page. Emails cancelled in that time aren't sent again, so resend any they still need from Emails sent. Once the erasure has run it is permanent. If you only want someone off your lists for now, delete them instead: you can restore them until your client's Erase deleted attendees setting erases them.

Will my reports change? Your counts and totals won't. Reports show an erased attendee as Erased, with their status, tickets and payments, but without their name, email or typed answers.

Does erasing remove the person from our CRM or other systems? No. If your event syncs with Salesforce, RainFocus, Cvent or GroceryAid, the copy in that system is yours to erase there. Erasing in Delekit stops us sending them anything more and clears our copy. The same goes for your Stripe account, which holds the buyer's name and email on their payment.

Someone asked Delekit directly to erase their data. What happens? We pass their request to you, as the organiser, within three working days, and help you answer it.

What about our own team's accounts? Remove their access in Client settings › Team and access. If their account should be erased completely, contact Delekit support.