ICO guidance, storage limitation: keep what a possible claim needs, then erase or anonymise (Information Commissioner's Office, 'Principle (e): Storage limitation')
The regulator accepts keeping data to defend possible claims, but not data that could not matter to one. Data no longer needed is deleted or anonymised: anonymising is the lawful alternative to deletion.
Dated 31 Oct 2026Source checked 31 Oct 2026Basis: primary text
Selling a company's data? This is one of the rules a sale has to meet, and the guide beside the button reads it in plain words.
- No data upload
- About two minutes
- No email needed
In the source's own words
“You should consider whether you need to keep information to defend possible future legal claims. However, you could still delete information that could not possibly be relevant to such a claim. ... What should we do with personal data that we no longer need? You can either erase (delete) it, or anonymise it.”
Where it was read
Figures it counts in
It is shown on its own, not counted into a figure.
Cited in this guide