Data retention is the decision about how long information should be kept. Deletion is the process for removing information when it is no longer needed. Together, they help an organization avoid keeping everything forever by accident.
Retention decisions usually depend on purpose. Some records may need to be kept for legal, contractual, operational, audit, tax, safety, or historical reasons. Other information may only be useful while a project is active. Personal data often needs extra care because privacy rules can require purpose limitation, minimization, and storage limitation.
A simple retention policy should answer four questions. What type of information is this? Who owns it? How long do we keep it? What happens at the end: archive, review, anonymize, or delete?
The policy should also be practical. If people cannot tell which files are records, drafts, temporary exports, or final deliverables, retention becomes guesswork. Clear file registers, metadata, status labels, and review dates make the policy easier to apply.
A workspace can support retention work by separating registered records from casual working files, keeping retention registers, assigning review actions, and making retention milestones visible.
Related: Document Control Basics, Registering a Record in FileStudio (WSO ↗), FileStudio Folders and Tags (WSO ↗).