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No. All data must be kept for 10 years minimum - tax laws.
But i guess it varies by country.
As @rds100 says you are obligated to keep full details of your business transactions for X years depending on jurisdiction. Check with your country's tax office for the exact length
Oh, fair enough then. I always thought some companies did it so people couldn't take advantage of "new customer" offers
Its necessary to keep the details for a minimum period , question is why does he / she want to erase details with your company have you asked ?
Very common that a provider changes hands or just goes to shit and therefore ppl understandably do not want their personal data out in the wild.
Well thats +1 , keeping that aside the above provider doesn't look like he's going anywhere so there might be some other reason.
Are you obligated to keep it online, in a place where it's potentially vulnerable to compromise?
Yeah, this pretty much. I don't like to have all my info out there with no need
Nope.
I wouldn't remove the details. Simply because its all the information and their history with you. If you do decide to remove it you should ensure that you have "downloaded" a copy of all their history with your company just to cover yourself anyway.
Yes, the data protection act in the UK advises against keeping information for longer than necessary.
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/principle-5-retention/#circumstances
I dont know if that belongs to here too, but most of my WHMCS accounts were deleted after I got no product with the provider anymore.
I can only imagine the number of hosts (and other online companies) who are in violation of their jurisdictions data and privacy laws. You would think companies with multiple breaches would have learned their lessons by now, apparently not with the most recent examples. There is no reason this data cannot be removed from a Whmcs database and stored offline if a customer requests it.
On a different note, you signature is not "ready" yet, it seems.
Didn't think so, this has always been my argument but as soon as I raise it, hosts stop replying to my ticket.
Many months ago I canceled 8 services. I asked everyone if my account details could be deleted, Crissic-Skylar was the only one who agreed.
Most providers here even the better ones are too short sighted to keep offline records.
Just about any host you'd ask to do this doesn't really even know how to do it. You can't actually delete the data without an SQL statement. The WHMS log tables contain far more than people often give them credit for.
But yeah, I'd black out info I don't need for financial records.
I would delete it if the customer did not order any products.
We are legally required to keep any customer data related to REAL MONEY TRANSACTIONS THAT WERE COMPLETED (this does not count cancelled orders, or orders that were refunded as part of fraud screening; but does include customers who had a service, then obtained a refund; or otherwise paid us first) for seven years after the date of last transaction, (yes, the time resets if they have more transactions) for tax purposes.
This is how Canada does it with federally registered companies.
We can remove the virtual record of your transactions with us if requested, (if you cancel / terminate all services, contacts, sub-accounts, and related or partner services; as by the definition I have been told by my accountant; it must be seven years from the cease of service, if requested for deletion (which allows post-dated transactions to still clear.)
We must keep the physical version (filed at our head office / principal operating location (or the location of our appointed CFO / accounting agency, if on call) for 7 years.
Sure it can be removed from WHMCS.
An offline copy is retained due to local trade laws for any paying customers.
Most providers I have used won't and I always assumed it's a benefit to them for more data for them to sell on and another address to send promotional mails to, I bet I can count the hosts on LET that keep physical records on a hand or two.
@AnthonySmith what do you think of this?
I find it quite frankly scary that people don't think they can't remove client records from WHMCS. The real issue that is coming through is the lack of simple business acumen which is not really a surprise.
AFAIK records from Paypal and bank are sufficient for IRS; so for U.S. business (not VPS hosting, but some other small stuff) I'm fine with deleting all personal data in database on customer (then again, I don't really collect any personal information anyway, just name and email; and most of them give me fake name).
Anyway even if records aren't needed by law, they're still needed for most larger businesses to keep so they have history in case something happens, also to file taxes if there's complicated set of revenue/expenses instead of just flowing through Paypal account.