What is kept about your customers, and for how long

What to collect

First name is always asked for, because the emails can’t be addressed without it (unless you tick No name). Everything else is optional, and anything left off is never written down:

• Surname: only worth it if you have two contacts with the same first name.
• Company: useful for telling contacts apart, and low risk on its own.
• Address: where the work is, for when you go to the customer. It is shown on their page so they can correct it. A name, an address and a time together say where somebody will be, so turn it on only if you travel to customers, and keep the period short.
• Customer email address: not needed to send anything, because the message goes from your own mail. If you turn it on, it is encrypted where it is stored.
• Their name, on a link with no name: lets whoever answers a general address give their first name. See Writing to a general address (No name).

How long to keep it

Clear details after sets how long after the proposed meeting has been and gone their details are cleared: from 1 day to 365 days, or Never - keep indefinitely. Seven days is the usual choice.

Clearing (the purge) removes their name and other details, anything they wrote, and the network address and browser the link was opened from. Their answer, its date and time, and the proposed time stay, so your history and statistics survive. Copies in the nightly backups are gone within 14 days after that.

Your customer is told all of this, using your own settings, in the privacy notice on their page. See What your customer sees.

Your own calendar

The same tab lists what Chalkedin holds from a calendar you have added, what you have blocked out, and what it sends to your calendar. See Keep busy times off the times you offer.

Clear all records

Clear all records… empties the Replied, Active and Expired lists in one go, after asking you again. Short codes are kept so links already sent still open, and your templates are left alone.

Removing one customer’s answer sooner

If a customer asks, press the × on their card under Replied or Expired, or cancel an active link. Their details still go no later than the purge.

You can see how many records still carry customer details, and of what kind, under Settings › Statistics. See Statistics.