Data Retention & Deletion

VivaEdu implements data minimization through automatic deletion. This page details retention schedules, deletion procedures, and configuration options for instructors, administrators, and compliance officers.

Default Retention Periods

The following retention periods apply by default. Administrators can adjust these values via the admin console.

What Gets Deleted at 90 Days

The 90-day deletion removes media files while preserving transcripts and academic records:

• Response audio files: .webm and .mp3 recordings from student responses
• Response video files: Video recordings (if video mode was enabled)
• Derived video files: Safari compatibility versions (derived-video/)
• Captioned video derivatives: Videos with burned-in captions (derived-video-captions/)

When media is deleted, the audioDeletedAt and videoDeletedAt timestamps are set on the response record. Transcripts, grades, and session metadata are retained at this stage.

What Gets Deleted at 180 Days

The 180-day purge removes all remaining assignment data:

• Essays: Uploaded files and database records
• Viva sessions: All student session records
• Questions: Per-session question instances
• Responses: Any remaining response records
• Teacher responses: Grades, feedback, and rubric scores
• Question pools: Assignment question pool items and images
• Context cards: PDF and image files students viewed during the viva
• Assignment record: The assignment configuration itself

What Is Retained

• Grade records: May be retained per institutional policy (separate from VivaEdu)
• Audit logs: Retained per configured retention period (default 365 days)

Retention Configuration

Administrators can configure retention settings via the Admin Console under Governance → Retention.

Configurable Settings

Configuration Constraints

• Purge days must exceed media delete days: The full purge cannot occur before media deletion
• Audit log retention minimum: 30 days (cannot be set lower for compliance purposes)

Automatic Deletion Schedule

VivaEdu runs a retention worker that automatically processes deletions on a scheduled basis.

Worker Actions

1. Find assignments with due date + 90 days passed → delete media files
2. Find assignments with due date + 180 days passed → purge all data
3. Archive inactive classes (if auto-archive is enabled)
4. Delete audit logs older than the retention window

Manual Deletion Options

Teacher-Initiated Deletion

Both actions require confirmation before execution and are logged to the audit system.

Admin-Initiated Cleanup

Administrators can trigger immediate cleanup via the "Run cleanup now" button in the Admin Console. This processes all pending deletions immediately rather than waiting for the next scheduled run.

Student-Initiated Deletion

• Students can request account deletion via Settings → Delete Account
• Request is sent to jex@vivaedu.co.uk
• Processed within 30 days
• Logged as GDPR_ACCOUNT_DELETION_REQUESTED

Class Archiving

When auto-archive is enabled by an administrator:

• Classes with no assignment activity for 180 days are identified
• All assignments within archived classes are purged
• Class record is marked inactive
• This feature is disabled by default and must be explicitly enabled

Demo Data Retention

Demo environments have special retention rules to ensure temporary data is cleaned up promptly:

Demo cleanup includes: users, classes, assignments, sessions, questions, responses, and all media files.

Audit Logging of Deletions

All deletion operations are recorded in the audit log:

Data Deletion Verification

To verify that data has been deleted:

• Audit logs: Check for deletion action entries with timestamps and metadata
• S3 objects: Objects are permanently removed from storage
• Database records: Records are permanently deleted (not soft-deleted)
• Response timestamps: audioDeletedAt and videoDeletedAt fields confirm media deletion

Important Notes

Retention Timeline