Retention, Disposal and Legal Hold

Overview

Brolly supports public-records compliance: each captured record is kept as a time-stamped, tamper-evident copy — including versions of content that was later edited or deleted on the platform — for as long as your organisation keeps it. Archiving supports recordkeeping and evidence preparation; it does not by itself establish compliance or admissibility, which depend on your organisation's own obligations and procedures. This article covers how long records are kept, what happens when a retention period or a subscription ends, how to protect records that are part of a legal matter, and the one thing that does expire: export files.

How Long Records Are Kept

While your subscription is active, Brolly retains every record it captures. Records do not age out and are never overwritten, so the archive holds what Brolly captured from the day each account was connected, including any history backfilled from before the connection.

When a paid subscription ends, a separate lifecycle applies. Under Brolly's standard Australian terms you keep export access for 90 days after termination, after which records are deleted from active systems and then from backups on their normal cycle; a legal hold notified before then is honoured. Your Order, data processing agreement or regional terms may set different periods, so check the agreement that applies to you and export what you need to keep before the access period ends.

Putting an account On hold or letting its authorisation lapse does not remove its records; they stay searchable and exportable. The only self-service action that removes records is Delete on the account's drawer in Settings → Accounts, which permanently removes the account and every record captured from it. Use Hold if you only want to stop capturing. See Managing Social Accounts.

Disposal

Most Australian jurisdictions set minimum retention periods for social media records under their public records legislation. When records pass their required retention period and your records officer authorises disposal, email support@brolly.com.au with what is to be disposed of and the authority for it.

Selective disposal is arranged with support rather than offered as a button, so it happens deliberately and with a written record. Deleting an account is different: it is a self-service action that permanently removes that account and every record captured from it, behind a confirmation that requires you to tick I understand — delete connection and click Confirm. Before deleting an account, check its retention obligations, any outstanding requests and any hold; if you only need to stop capturing, use Hold.

Legal Hold

If records are subject to litigation, an FOI request in progress, or an investigation, email support@brolly.com.au with the accounts, period and a reference for the matter. Support confirms the hold in writing, and the records it names are excluded from support-arranged disposal until an authorised person asks for the hold to be released. A legal hold is not the same as an account's On hold capture state, and it does not stop someone with access from deleting the account, so keep your own register of held records and restrict who can delete accounts.

Export Files Expire; Records Do Not

Export files on the Exports page are kept for a limited time, set by your organisation's retention settings. After that the file's status reads Expired and it can no longer be downloaded. The records themselves are unaffected — they are still in the Archive, and you can create a new export of the same scope and dates whenever you need the file again. See Exports.

Tips

Keep a note of which records are under legal hold on your side as well, so that when the matter closes you know what to release.

If an FOI response or audit file needs to be kept long term, store the downloaded export in your records system — export files in Brolly are convenience copies and will expire.

Before deleting an account, filter the Archive to that account and check nothing in it is still within its retention period. Hold is almost always the safer choice.