P4.2 Retaining personal information

Personal information is retained in line with privacy objectives. Points of focus: it is kept no longer than needed for the stated purposes unless law requires otherwise; and it is protected from erasure or destruction during its retention period.

Source: SOC 2 (2017 Trust Services Criteria), P4.2. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open SOC 2 (2017 Trust Services Criteria) in the compliance library.

These are criteria, not controls: you design controls that meet them, and which criteria are in scope follows the categories your report covers (Security always; Availability, Confidentiality, Processing Integrity and Privacy only if chosen). A Type 2 report tests that the controls operated across the period, so the evidence asked for is samples across that period, not one copy.