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Data export and erasure

What a store owner can export and erase in Exponential, and how - mail data, accounts, form submissions, orders, newsletter records, logs and backups - with a yearly retention routine and the questions to settle with…

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Address: https://doc.exponential.earth/exphelp/viewer/help/customers/commerce/data-export-and-erasure.md

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Data export and erasure

This page is for the owner and the administrator. It lists, for each kind of data a store holds, how it is exported and how it is erased, and gives a yearly routine to keep data no longer than you decided. The full tables of defaults and settings are on Data retention and deletion; this page is the store's view of them.

Warning

Not legal advice. How long you must or may keep each kind of data is a legal and bookkeeping decision. Ask your lawyer, your accountant or your data protection officer.

Export and erase, by kind of data

DataExportEraseSource
Mail preferences and consentThe person's own download; ./console exp:mail:preferences export --email=<address>./console exp:mail:preferences erase --email=<address> --yes (consent log anonymized, withdrawal kept as proof)Compliance and GDPR
User accountRead in UsersRemove the user: final, no trash, erases mail preferencesCheck user accounts
OrdersOne customer's orders in the customer order view; each receipt as a downloaded fileArchive (shop/archiveorder) or remove (shop/removeorder)kernel/shop/module.php, Permanent order receipts
Form submissionsSetup > Collected information, CSV exportSame page: remove collectionsCollected information
Newsletter subscribersThe cjw_newsletter administrationThe cjw_newsletter user listcjw_newsletter
Audit recordsexp:audit export --subject-user=<id>Not one by one; kept for the retention period, personal fields pseudonymizedData retention and deletion
BasketsNot neededRemoved by the basket_cleanup.php cron jobsettings/cronjob.ini
BackupsYour hostExpire under your backup retentionBackups: what to back up

Note

The shop has no export of all orders to a spreadsheet, and no command that removes or anonymizes all orders of one customer among the shop views (kernel/shop/module.php, and What the built-in shop does). For a single request, the customer order view finds that customer's orders by e-mail address (shop/customerorderview).

Archive or remove orders?

ArchiveRemove
Leaves the active order listyesyes
Can be brought backyes (shop/unarchiveorder)no
Kept for bookkeepingyesno
Personal data still storedyesno

Most stores archive finished orders after their returns period and remove them only when the bookkeeping period has passed. Write your periods into a retention schedule; the one on Data retention and deletion has a line for orders.

The defaults that run on their own

Several kinds of data are removed by cron jobs, with periods you can change, for example sessions after 360 days (site.ini [Session] SessionTimeout), 404.log after 30 days and security.log after 90 days (Data retention and deletion).

Warning

If the cron jobs do not run, nothing is removed. Ask your host to confirm that they are scheduled (Cron jobs).

A yearly retention routine

  • To do: Retention schedule reviewed with the adviser: periods for orders, accounts, form submissions, logs, backups.
  • To do: Settings still match the schedule; your administrator changes them in settings/override.
  • To do: Orders past the bookkeeping period removed, others archived.
  • To do: Form submissions older than needed removed in Setup > Collected information.
  • To do: Long-unused customer accounts reviewed with Users > Check user accounts.
  • To do: Newsletter subscribers who are gone handled in the newsletter administration.
  • To do: Export files on staff computers and in var/tmp/ deleted.
  • To do: Backup retention confirmed with the host.

What to settle with your host

  • How long backups are kept, and where.
  • Whether erased data must be removed from backups, or expires with them.
  • How a restore avoids bringing erased data back into use.
  • Which server, mail and panel logs they keep outside Exponential, and for how long.

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This documentation is free documentation, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or later.

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