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Open Settings > Privacy to choose how long Hotfix keeps applicant data after an application closes. Owners and Admins can change it. Members can see it but not change it. Privacy needs a hosted plan. Without one, the page shows Hosted hiring only and a View billing button.
The Privacy page with Delete applicant data set to After 12 months

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Delete applicant data

Pick Off, After 6 months, After 12 months, or After 24 months. It starts as Off, so nothing is deleted until you choose a window. An application closes when the first of these happens:
  • You reject it. The clock starts when it moved to Rejected, and starts over if you move it out and back.
  • The applicant withdraws.
  • You close its job.
Hired applicants are never deleted. That record becomes your HR file, so keep a copy where you keep those. Hotfix deletes applications once a day. A change you save applies from the next run, within a day.

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The confirmation

Turning it on, or choosing a shorter window, shows how many applications are already past it, like 3 applications closed more than 6 months ago. Those are deleted within a day of saving, and it can’t be undone. Before you click Save, mark any you need as Keep. A longer window, or Off, saves right away. Nothing extra is deleted.

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What gets deleted

For each application past the window: What’s kept is anonymous: no name, email, or anything else that points to a person. It isn’t in your inbox, search, Agent, or the API. It keeps Analytics and the Equal opportunity totals from dropping as old applications go. Not deleted, because they don’t live in Hotfix:
  • Interview events on your Google Calendar, and the email itself in your Gmail. Hotfix stores only a short summary of each thread.
  • Anything an Agent chat already showed.
The applicant’s own Hotfix account and resume are never touched. Only your company’s copy of the application is deleted.

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Keep an application

Mark an application Keep to hold it back from deletion, for a legal hold or a candidate you want for a future role.
1

Open the candidate

In the inbox, open the candidate’s record. See Candidate record.
2

Turn on Keep

In the details panel under Application, turn on Keep. Anyone on your team can.
Turn Keep off to let the application be deleted again. If it’s already past the window, it’s deleted in the next run. The activity feed shows who marked or removed Keep. Over HTTP, set keep on set_status or the bulk update. See Applications.

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Your agreement

Your company decides what happens to applicant data, and Hotfix processes it on your instructions. This setting is one of those instructions. See the Data Processing Addendum, section 8.