Retention and destruction policy
Last updated: 5 October 2026 · Version 2.0
This text is informational until it has passed legal review.
This is a courtesy translation of the Turkish text. If the two differ, the Turkish version is binding.
1. Purpose and basis
This policy explains, under Article 7 of Law No. 6698 (KVKK) and the Regulation on the Deletion, Destruction or Anonymisation of Personal Data, how long Searcher Teknoloji A.Ş. keeps the personal data it processes and how it is destroyed afterwards. Personal data is deleted, destroyed or anonymised when the reasons for processing disappear.
2. Definitions
- Deletion: making personal data inaccessible and unusable in any way for the relevant users.
- Destruction: making personal data inaccessible, irretrievable and unusable by anyone.
- Anonymisation: making personal data impossible to link to an identified or identifiable natural person, even by matching with other data.
3. Retention periods
| Data | Retention period | At the end |
|---|---|---|
| Account, profile, skills, experience, languages, certificate types, pay and location | While the account is open | Deleted or anonymised |
| Account with a deletion request | Up to 30 days from the request | Deleted or anonymised in all layers |
| Identity and company verification documents | 30 days after the decision; immediately on a deletion request | Deleted from file storage; only result and date remain |
| Profile photo | While the account is open; the old one is deleted when changed | Deleted from file storage |
| Experience-verification invitation | Valid 14 days; invitee's e-mail anonymised 30 days after reply or expiry | Anonymised |
| Messages | While the account is open | Content deleted (an empty record remains so the other party's conversation is not broken) |
| Notifications and notification preferences | While the account is open | Deleted |
| Comments, likes, follows, company reviews | While the account is open | Comment content deleted; like, follow and review deleted |
| Notes employers keep about candidates | While the employer account is open | Deleted (also on the candidate's deletion request) |
| Data export file | 7 days together with the download link | Deleted from file storage |
| Contact-form messages | 1 year | Deleted |
| Offers, funnel events, statistics totals | De-identified when the account is deleted; kept without identity | Remain as anonymous data |
| Subscription, credit and payment records | 10 years (Tax Procedure Law and Commercial Code) | Deleted |
| Consent records | 10 years after the account is deleted (no name or e-mail) | Deleted |
| Deletion and export request records | At least 3 years (destruction record) | Deleted |
| Infrastructure providers' access (traffic) logs | The period required of hosting providers by Law No. 5651 | Deleted |
| Backups | Up to 30 days | Disappear automatically with the backup cycle |
Application logs contain no names, e-mails, phone numbers or document paths.
4. Destruction methods (layer by layer)
A deletion request or expiry is applied across all data layers:
- Database: personal fields are deleted or irreversibly anonymised (name becomes "Deleted user", e-mail is turned into an invalid domain, the profile address is replaced with a random value; occupation, location, pay and other profile data are cleared).
- File storage: the account's folder is scanned and every object in it (profile photo, identity and company documents, export files, article images) is deleted; the path stored in the database is not trusted.
- AI provider: profile and role documents are deleted at the provider; the sync record is removed.
- Authentication: the user record in the authentication infrastructure is deleted along with its sessions and e-mail identities.
- Cache: the account record is evicted from the cache (it lives at most 5 minutes).
- Backups: deleted data also disappears from backups when the backup cycle completes. If a backup is restored, deletion records are re-applied so previously deleted accounts are deleted again.
5. How a deletion request works
- Immediately: your profile is withdrawn from matching and search; open offers are closed; your comments and reviews are taken down; employer roles are closed; documents at the AI provider are deleted.
- Within 30 days at the latest: personal data in all the layers above is deleted or anonymised and the Auth user is removed. This runs automatically; even if the queued job is lost or fails, a sweeper that runs every hour completes expired requests.
- When done: the request is marked "completed".
This action cannot be undone.
6. Data that is kept or anonymised instead of deleted
The records below are not deleted because of a legal obligation, the protection of rights or the rights of others; they carry no identity or only what is necessary:
- Invoice, subscription, credit and payment records (tax and commercial law, 10 years),
- Consent records (proof of consent; the record has no name, e-mail or IP address),
- Offer and offer-history records anonymised so the other party's process is not broken (the employer's own business records),
- De-identified statistics totals (pay medians, funnel counts and the like; they cannot be traced back to a person).
7. Periodic destruction and responsibility
Expired data is not left to wait for the 6-month maximum periodic destruction interval in the regulation; automatic sweeper jobs handle it: deletion requests and export files hourly, verification documents and invitations daily. Records of destruction (deletion request records) are kept for at least 3 years.
Searcher Teknoloji A.Ş. is responsible as data controller for applying this policy. You can send questions to kvkk@searcher.com.