Data Retention

Verifa provides configurable data retention policies to help you meet regulatory requirements for GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy frameworks.

Organization retention settings

Each organization can configure:

Verifa-owned retention

A small set of records have fixed retention windows managed by Verifa and not configurable per organization:

Two-pass retention

Verifa uses a two-pass retention model:

1. Sensitive data window — After sensitive_data_retention_days, PII fields and document images are no longer accessible through the API. The underlying data still exists for compliance purposes.

2. Full retention expiry — After data_retention_days, all data (including encrypted PII and stored documents) is permanently deleted. A session.retention-expired webhook event is fired.

This two-pass approach allows you to maintain audit records (session status, verification outcome) while restricting PII access after a shorter window.

Manual redaction

Single session

Delete all PII and document images for a specific session:

$
curl -X DELETE https://api.withverifa.com/api/v1/sessions/session_abc123/data \
>
  -H "X-API-Key: vk_live_your_key_here"

1
{
2
  "status": "deleted",
3
  "session_id": "session_abc123",
4
  "documents_removed": 3,
5
  "message": "Session data permanently redacted."
6
}

Bulk redaction

Redact up to 100 sessions in a single request:

$
curl -X POST https://api.withverifa.com/api/v1/sessions/bulk-redact \
>
  -H "X-API-Key: vk_live_your_key_here" \
>
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
>
  -d '{
>
    "session_ids": ["session_abc123", "session_def456", "session_ghi789"]
>
  }'

1
{
2
  "total": 3,
3
  "results": [
4
    {"session_id": "session_abc123", "status": "deleted", "documents_removed": 3},
5
    {"session_id": "session_def456", "status": "deleted", "documents_removed": 2},
6
    {"session_id": "session_ghi789", "status": "already_redacted", "documents_removed": 0}
7
  ]
8
}

Redaction is irreversible. Once executed:

• All encrypted PII fields are permanently zeroed.
• All document images are deleted from object storage.
• The session’s retention_status is set to redacted.
• A session.redacted webhook event is fired.

GDPR compliance

Verifa supports GDPR right-to-deletion (Article 17) through session redaction:

• Data subject request — When a user requests deletion, call DELETE /api/v1/sessions/\{session_id\}/data for their session(s).
• Proof of deletion — The response includes documents_removed count and the session.redacted webhook provides an auditable record.
• Retention limits — Configure data_retention_days to automatically delete data after a defined period.

CCPA compliance

For CCPA right-to-delete requests:

• Use the bulk redaction endpoint to process multiple sessions at once.
• The session.redacted webhook provides timestamps for your deletion log.
• Sessions that have already been redacted return already_redacted status without error.

Audit trail

Redaction actions are recorded in the audit log with:

• Timestamp of the redaction
• Admin or API key that initiated the request
• Number of documents removed
• IP address of the requestor

Related

• Data Access — PII filtering, signed URLs, and sensitive data windows
• Webhooks Guide — session.redacted and session.retention-expired events
• Identities — GDPR deletion across identity records