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Data Retention: Difference Between Anonymization and Deletion and How It Works

  • December 29, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 142 views

Andreia Miranda
Bobber

Bob helps you manage employee data safely and compliantly by using two different methods after the retention period ends—anonymization and deletion.

 

Some items - personal documents in My Docs and profile media (pictures, videos, banners) - are permanently deleted after the chosen retention period. Once deleted, these files cannot be recovered.

 

For employee profile data, Bob doesn’t remove the entire record. Instead, certain fields containing personal information—like name, address, phone number, ID numbers, and other identifiers—are anonymized. This means:

 

- Values are scrambled, reset, or replaced

(for example: names show as “-----”, dates reset to default values, emails scrambled).

- The anonymization is permanent and irreversible.

- Once anonymized, the data cannot be accessed or restored to its original form, even by admins.

 

This feature allows Bob to comply with data protection regulations while preserving historical records for reporting and compliance.

 

1 reply

Caroline Dias

Hi ​@Andreia Miranda 

I’m coming to the end of setting up our data retention policy for terminated employees in Bob, and before activating it, I’d like to make sure I fully understand the impact of anonymising versus permanently deleting data. In particular, I’d like to understand what happens if we later need historical information for a legal claim, audit, reporting or another legitimate business/legal requirement. Once information is anonymised, what remains available for reporting, and how does this differ in practice from deleting the data completely?

I’d also appreciate some clarification around employee profile data, as I want to make sure we’re retaining what we legitimately need while also complying with the UK GDPR principle of not keeping personal data for longer than necessary.

As this could have a significant impact once the policy is activated, is there someone at Bob who could perhaps go through the setup with us and review a few of the items before we activate it? I’d feel much more comfortable confirming the implications of each option before anything is permanently deleted or anonymised.

I really appreciate any guidance you can provide.

Have a great day!

Caroline