Do you delete unused data?

tbaohoang94 · 2025-01-31T12:07:07.817Z

When a User unsubscribes from my Service i delete the account and a ton of “Empty Data” exists in my DB. Even if the User subscribes again the Data wont be used again.

Do you usually delete not needed Data or do you keep them?

Im asking because it would cost a lot of WU if i have to delete everything again. On the other side im unsure if there are any performance issues if the Database getting bigger, even when its data that is not associated to the User.

Curious what you would do.

javier6 · 2025-01-31T16:07:19.592Z

I would just keep the data, what happens if the user wants to come back to your platform? Plus you’ll have a list of users who you can try and launch a reactivation campaign against.

manipaje · 2025-02-02T07:06:24.988Z

Always delete PII. So a user deletion runs a BE workflow on all tables where they have records and performs a search for them. This is for GDPR (EU data laws) and just sound of mind. Imagine you got hacked or made an error and you contacted ‘deleted’ accounts - it would be ruinous for a reputable company.

If a user wants to leave, let them leave - and delete their data on the way. Would you want your data stored forever?

ps. this doesn’t necessarily work when dealing with statistical or shared data (for example) you need to follow data laws and make your own judgement on what to delete.

johnny · 2025-02-02T07:45:48.190Z

Depends on what your privacy policy i guess and the type of app. If your privacy policy says that if the user requests for their data to be deleted that everything will be deleted, you should abide by that.

If a user simply just unsubscribed, I would just leave their account and data unless they specifically request for it to be deleted.

florianherzog · 2025-02-02T08:52:32.883Z

IMO, If you’re running at scale at the moment and have many users (+10k), probably better to properly delete data at account ‘deletion’. Otherwise, just let it be and state in your TOS that you retain some data of the user and that, if they want it deleted, they should contact you. Focus on the core product