What it means
Candidate data retention is the policy and system behavior that determine how long candidate records, application materials, communications, consent events, assessment results, interview notes, disposition reasons, and integration logs are stored. It also covers deletion, export, archive, legal hold, and access controls for candidate data.
Why buyers should care
Recruiting systems often store sensitive candidate information across multiple tools. If retention settings are unclear, teams may keep unnecessary data, delete records too early, or lose visibility into what has moved into downstream systems. Buyers should understand retention defaults and whether the product can support policy, privacy, audit, and operational review requirements.
Evaluation checks
Review retention defaults, admin configuration, deletion workflows, legal hold options, audit logs, exports, candidate requests, and subprocessor behavior. Ask vendors to distinguish source records, derived records, communication history, and integration logs. Retention should be configurable enough to support organizational policy without forcing teams to keep sensitive candidate data indefinitely.
This glossary entry is buyer-oriented guidance, not legal, compliance, or financial advice.