An ISO 27001 data retention policy you can actually prove.
A retention policy in a document doesn't survive an audit. ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, and LGPD all want evidence that expired data was disposed of on schedule, with sign-off. This template runs the review, the disposition, and the DPO approval as one auditable chain.
For dpos, privacy officers, and compliance managers. No credit card. First run in under a minute.
Review #RET-0042
Annual Retention Review · All data classes · ISO 27001 + LGPD scope
- Review intake & scope100%Privacy OfficerApproval gate
- Inventory data classes & volumesBLOQUEADAData EngineerEvidence attached
- Assess retention status per classBLOQUEADAPrivacy OfficerIn parallel
- Disposition decision per classBLOQUEADAPrivacy OfficerJustification requiredDep. pendente
- Execute deletion / archivalBLOQUEADAIT OperationsEvidence attachedDep. pendente
- DPO / Compliance sign-offBLOQUEADADPOClosure gateDep. pendente
Opinion
What we cut. And what we kept.
This template is built to produce retention evidence, not another policy nobody executes.
Cut
- A retention policy PDF with no record of execution.
- Deletion decisions made in email with no justification trail.
- An annual "review" that's really a calendar reminder nobody actions.
- Disposition claims auditors can't verify.
Kept
- Data-class inventory tied to retention schedule and legal basis.
- A disposition decision recorded per class, with justification.
- Deletion and archival executed with evidence captured per action.
- DPO sign-off as a closure gate on every cycle.
What this template includes
Process steps
- 1Review intake and scope: what triggered this review, which systems and data classes are in scope, Privacy Officer gate
- 2Inventory data classes and volumes across systems, with owners and storage locations
- 3Assess retention status per class against your retention schedule and legal basis
- 4Disposition decision per data class: retain, delete, archive, or migrate, with justification
- 5Execute deletion, archival, or migration, with evidence captured per action
- 6DPO / Compliance sign-off on the completed review and disposition record, closure gate
Why teams use this template
A data retention policy that lives in a PDF proves nothing. ISO 27001 (the Annex A control on retention and secure disposal), SOC 2, GDPR, and LGPD all require evidence that expired data is actually disposed of, on schedule, with sign-off, not just a document that says it should be. When the auditor asks "show me the last retention review and what you deleted," a policy document is not an answer.
This template turns the data retention policy into a recurring, auditable review: scoped intake, a data-class inventory, a retention-status assessment against your schedule, a disposition decision per class, execution of deletion or archival with evidence, and DPO sign-off. Two checkpoint gates make it impossible to close the review without a documented disposition record.
Built for privacy and security teams that have to prove retention discipline across ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, and LGPD at once: run it annually or on a trigger, and the run history becomes the retention evidence every framework asks for, reusable cycle over cycle.
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