How long should user generated data be kept in a web service

Should web services keep user-generated data forever? Or could it make sense to delete this at some point, for example, because it stops to be relevant?

The thought came while watching an old Youtube video, which I already watched some years ago, and it was no longer marked as watched. I was irritated at first until I realized that I’d switched accounts in-between, and I’ve never watched it with my new account so far. But I got me wondering if this could be something to implement in my projects.

At first glance, I find this idea problematic, and I don’t think it is a good idea. The more data, the better. But what are you doing with all this data?

In a system where the data is only relevant for a short time, for example, a ticketing system. I don’t think it is necessary to keep transactions for a very long time. In that case, I would keep the data until the event is over plus some a month or so. And then you can safely delete it.

But going back to my original case with Youtube, I would not like the service to lose my watch history. So I think it depends on the use case of the data. I am omitting the fact that most companies want to have as much data about you to sell advertisements. Or that you need to keep this data for legal reasons.

• /web-services
• /user-data
• /user-generated-content
• /data-collection