Docs Security & privacy Retention & deletion
Security & privacy · 03 of 03

Retention & deletion.

How long Mama keeps your data, when it's deleted, and how to delete it on demand. Per-category retention table, deletion mechanics, backup expiration.

Time: 4 min·Updated: 2026-05-25·Audience: admins, legal reviewers

TL;DR

Default retention is for the life of your workspace. Audit logs: 90 days (Pro), 1 year (Company). Reply text: 90 days, configurable down to 0. Backups: 30 days, then purged. Workspace deletion takes 30 days with 14-day undo. DSR erasure within 30 days of request.

01Default retention

Workspace data is kept for the life of the workspace. We don't auto-delete briefs, saved searches, accounts, or any user-generated content unless you explicitly delete them or your workspace is deleted.

Categories with explicit shorter retention (audit logs, reply text, backups) are listed in the per-type table below.

02Per-data-type retention

Data typeDefault retentionConfigurable?
BriefsLife of workspaceDelete individual or bulk
Accounts & saved searchesLife of workspaceDelete individual
Orbit relationshipsLife of workspaceRemove individual
Decision-maker contactsLife of workspaceRemove via DSR or manual
Reply text (Reply Loop)90 daysYes — down to 0 days (metadata only)
Audit logs90 days (Pro) / 1 year (Company)No (compliance requirement)
Database backups30 daysNo (operational requirement)
Billing records7 yearsNo (financial compliance)
Deleted workspace30-day soft delete, then purgedNo

03Deletion mechanics

When you delete a brief or account from the UI:

  1. Soft-deleted immediately — removed from your views, "Undo" available in the toast for 10 seconds
  2. Marked for purge — moves to a recoverable archive (workspace admin can restore for 7 days)
  3. Hard-deleted after 7 days — primary database row removed
  4. Purged from backups on backup-rotation cycle (max 30 days from soft-delete)

04Workspace deletion

Settings → Billing → Delete workspace. The flow:

  1. Confirmation — type the workspace name to confirm
  2. 14-day undo window — workspace is suspended, not deleted. Re-activate from the deleted-workspace screen.
  3. 16 more days of grace — workspace is hard-suspended; only restoration option is a support request
  4. Day 30: hard delete — all primary data purged
  5. Day 60: backup purge complete — last vestiges removed from rotated backups

05Backup retention

Operational backups are kept for 30 days, then automatically purged. Backups are encrypted with the same key hierarchy as primary storage.

Backups are not kept indefinitely. If you need long-term archival (e.g., for legal hold), use the CSV export feature to extract data to your own storage.

06DSR erasure timing

When a data subject requests erasure under GDPR (or analogous regimes):

StepTiming
Request received, identity verifiedWithin 5 business days
Erasure from primary databaseWithin 30 days of verified request
Erasure from active backupsNext backup rotation (max 30 additional days)
Workspace admins notified of erasureWithin 30 days (so they can propagate to CRM)
Confirmation to requesterWithin 30 days of verified request

07Common mistakes

Assuming deletion is instant
Soft-delete is instant; hard-delete takes 7 days. Total purge including backups can take up to 30 days. Plan accordingly for compliance deadlines.
Deleting workspace before exporting
After 14 days you can't easily recover. If you might need the data, export to CSV first.
Expecting longer backup retention
30 days is the operational max. Mama is not a long-term archive — your CRM or your own data warehouse is.
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