Overview
KyberGate stores browsing logs, activity data, and event records to support compliance reporting and school safety monitoring. The Data Retention & Automated Purge feature lets you configure how long this data is kept and automatically deletes it when the retention window expires.
This helps your district stay compliant with privacy regulations while keeping storage costs manageable.
Prerequisites
- Admin role in the KyberGate dashboard
- Understanding of your district's data retention policies
- Familiarity with CIPA, FERPA, and any state-level retention requirements
What Data Is Retained
KyberGate stores several types of data, each with configurable retention:
- Browsing Logs — URLs visited, domains, timestamps, categories, and filter actions (allowed/blocked)
- Safety Alerts — flagged content, self-harm keyword detections, and AI-classified incidents
- Device Activity — online/offline status, last check-in, screen lock events
- Command History — lock/unlock, push URL, focus mode, and other commands sent to devices
- YouTube Activity — video titles, channels, educational classification results
Steps
Step 1: Open Retention Settings
In the KyberGate dashboard, navigate to Settings → Data & Privacy → Data Retention.
Step 2: Set Retention Periods
For each data type, choose a retention period from the dropdown:
- 90 days — CIPA minimum for E-Rate compliance (recommended starting point)
- 180 days — covers a full semester
- 365 days — full academic year
- Custom — set any number of days (minimum 90)
The CIPA minimum of 90 days is enforced by default. KyberGate will not allow you to set a retention period shorter than 90 days for browsing logs.
Step 3: Configure Automated Purge
Toggle Automated Purge to ON. This enables a daily background process that identifies and permanently deletes records older than your configured retention window.
The purge runs once per day during off-peak hours (typically between 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM in your organization's timezone) to minimize any performance impact.
Step 4: Review Purge History
After enabling automated purge, you can monitor what has been deleted in the Purge History log. This shows:
- Date and time of each purge run
- Number of records deleted per data type
- Any errors or skipped records
Step 5: Export Before Purge (Optional)
If you need to archive data before it is purged, use the Export feature on the Reports page. Schedule monthly or quarterly exports to CSV or PDF, and store them in your district's document management system.
Tips
- Set browsing logs to 90 days minimum to satisfy CIPA requirements for E-Rate eligibility
- Safety alerts are often kept longer (180–365 days) because they may be needed for incident investigations
- Command history has minimal storage impact, so longer retention is fine
- Use the Export feature to create permanent compliance archives before purge
- Check with your district's legal counsel or data privacy officer for state-specific retention requirements — some states mandate longer retention than the federal minimum
- Purge is permanent and irreversible — once data is deleted, it cannot be recovered
FAQ
Q: What is the minimum retention period? A: 90 days for browsing logs, which aligns with CIPA's requirement for E-Rate compliance. Safety alerts have no minimum but we recommend at least 90 days.
Q: Can I pause automated purge? A: Yes. Toggle Automated Purge to OFF at any time. Existing data will be preserved until you re-enable purge or manually delete it.
Q: Does purge delete data across all sub-organizations? A: Retention settings are configured per organization. Each sub-organization inherits the parent's settings unless overridden with its own retention configuration.
Q: What about data stored in backups? A: Automated purge removes data from the active database. KyberGate system backups are rotated on a 30-day cycle and are not affected by your retention settings. Contact support if you need backup purge for a specific compliance request.
Q: Will I be notified before data is purged? A: KyberGate sends an email notification to organization admins 7 days before the first purge cycle runs after enabling the feature. After that, purge runs silently unless errors occur.