Data retention policies drafted around what your business keeps and for how long

The legal risk usually comes from a mismatch between the written policy and what your team actually does. A business may say it deletes information after a set period, but in practice keep old customer records, marketing lists, applicant files or support logs indefinitely across different systems. That gap can create privacy issues if someone asks what you hold, why you still have it, or when it will be deleted. Privacy wording works best when it is matched to your real collection, use, storage and disclosure practices, not only on the wording of the policy.

It commonly sets out the categories of information your business keeps, why those records are retained, the retention periods or review triggers that apply, when deletion or anonymisation should occur, and who is responsible for carrying out those steps. It may also address archived material, backups, direct marketing records and how retention decisions interact with privacy requests. How you collect, use and disclose information will shape both the drafting and the advice, because those data flows shape what the policy needs to say.

We look at the practical lifecycle of the information you hold rather than relying on generic policy wording. That can include customer account data, enquiry forms, employee or contractor records, marketing databases, support tickets, health information, payment-related records or platform analytics, depending on your business. We then map that against your retention approach and draft policy wording that reflects those categories and workflows. If your business uses several systems or shares information with service providers, those facts can materially affect how the policy should be framed.

Templates often sound complete but leave out the operational detail that matters most, such as how long different datasets are retained, whether deletion is automatic or manual, what happens to backups, and how marketing suppression records are handled. A generic template may also assume data flows that do not match your business. This service We will make the key issues clear so you can decide what to do next. particularly if internal practices are inconsistent or the policy is not followed after it is adopted.

The next step is gathering the practical information needed for the draft, such as what categories of data you hold, where they sit, how long they are usually kept and whether any existing internal rules already apply. We then prepare the policy and identify any points where your current practices and the proposed wording do not line up neatly. After your comments are received, we finalise the document. The service covers the policy drafting itself, but not technical deletion workflows, system changes or broader privacy remediation work.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Data Retention Policy service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.