Keeping track of deleted records

[bobunknown]

Just spitballing here.

I have a database with records being added and removed frequently as people come and go.

I was just wondering if there was a way of logging or keeping track of how many records are deleted without having to keep their associated data?

Ideally I would want to have a log generated every time I remove a record, in the form of a date. This would allow me to see stuff like what time of the year the most people leave and give me a yearly count of those who leave.

Like I said just spitballing as I don't even know if it is possible. Anyone have any experience of knowledge on the subject?

Thanks

 

[CJ_London]

depends on how users are deleting, if by highlighting a record or records in a table or query and deleting then no.

If being managed through a form, you could use one of the form delete events to populate a table, tho not sure how you would capture a multi record delete.

Not sure of the relevance of 'as people come and go' but generally speaking deleting records is not considered good practice. What most people do is to have a 'delete' field, typically might be a boolean, date or text field plus perhaps the user ID which gets updated and then can be used to exclude records from queries, forms and the like.

 

[theDBguy]

Hi,

Have you looked into possibly doing this with a data macro?

Sent from phone...

 

[bobunknown]

depends on how users are deleting, if by highlighting a record or records in a table or query and deleting then no.

If being managed through a form, you could use one of the form delete events to populate a table, tho not sure how you would capture a multi record delete.

Not sure of the relevance of 'as people come and go' but generally speaking deleting records is not considered good practice. What most people do is to have a 'delete' field, typically might be a boolean, date or text field plus perhaps the user ID which gets updated and then can be used to exclude records from queries, forms and the like.

I use a form, just the standard delete record button right now to remove data, this is always done one record at a time btw.

I hear what your saying about the removal of data being bad on the whole but im subject to GDRP regulations with my work so once we no longer need the data we have to get rid of it as it contains personal information.

I like your idea about populating a table tho, that may be the best way.

 

[isladogs]

I use a form, just the standard delete record button right now to remove data, this is always done one record at a time btw.

I hear what your saying about the removal of data being bad on the whole but im subject to GDRP regulations with my work so once we no longer need the data we have to get rid of it as it contains personal information.

I like your idea about populating a table tho, that may be the best way.

Excuse my possible ignorance, but I don't think that's exactly what GDPR requires. It certainly requires that data shouldn't be collected unless required and requests to remove data must be acted upon. Surely the main point is to ensure that all personal data remains secure.

 

[Minty]

GDPR doesn't mean deleting data. It means being careful with who has access and what you record and what you do with it.

Personal data about employees current or ex is perfectly acceptable, provided they are aware that you have it and you are likely to keep it for a certain period of time after they leave in case of requiring contact. An employer in the UK has a legal duty to keep tax related pay records regarding staff for 3 years.

A lot more reading here http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3717#information

If an employee leaves, you are perfectly entitled to keep certain details about them as long as they aren't openly available or in the public domain.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

generally speaking deleting records is not considered good practice. What most people do is to have a 'delete' field,

Further to Chris's observation, and slightly off the main topic, but worth mentioning.

Let's say you have a Combo Box for selecting a courier service. In the list is "Instant Delivery or your Money Back". They go bust for obvious reasons!

Someone gets fed up seeing "Instant Delivery" listed as a courier in the Combo Selection, and deletes it. The combo works better, but now in your historic records, you have no idea who did the delivery, and worse, database sacrilege, you have missing data!

As Colin says, a "delete" flag can be used to remove the record from display, without affecting the integrity of your data.

A supervisor, a programmer, someone with some knowledge of how deleting data incorrectly can damage your database integrity can then decide whether to permanently remove the record or not.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I'm with the others here though I'm from the USA and this GDRP isn't one of our requirements. But the USA Privacy Act of 1974 (or 75?) WAS applicable before I retired. What we did was retain the record and the name but blanked out the stuff that ran afoul of the privacy requirements. We had date of separation, full name, the internal record ID, and maybe a couple of things that we retained, but a lot of other stuff we "sanitized."

 

[CJ_London]

An employer in the UK has a legal duty to keep tax related pay records regarding staff for 3 years

thought that was 6 years - and HR records (re health and safety) for something like 40 years in case of claims of ill health later in life being due to something going on now. Although that is more to do with a company being able to provide evidence rather than a legal requirement - you're guilty until proven innocent....

 

[isladogs]

Looks like we're all in general agreement about the requirements of GDPR but it does appear that it wasn't fully understood by all businesses in the rush to comply by the deadline

 

[The_Doc_Man]

it does appear that it wasn't fully understood by all businesses in the rush to comply by the deadline

Now THAT sounds like a typical USA government regulation!

 

[bobunknown]

With regards to GDPR - I think ill change the name of the thread

Under Article 5 paragraph 1 (purpose Limitation) of GDPR you must be clear in what you intend to use the data for and from then on it can only be used for this, unless you get consent, of have a clear basis in law. (there are exceptions for things like in the public interest/good, this is the grounds for Health and Safety to keep such extensive records).

Again under Article 5 paragraph 1 (Storage Limitation) you must only keep personal data for as long as you need it. (this is why we remove it) If you are going to retain data then you need to be able to legally justify why you are keeping it. As said above this can be for the public benefit, scientific research and statistical data but unfortunately none of these apply to me.

While it would be nice to keep all the data somewhere unfortunately I don't think I can justify this which is why I was looking for ideas as to how to log deleted records (or the fact that there has been a record deleted).

Sorry about the GDPR legislation but you all seemed interested in it.

 

[isladogs]

Thank you. The details were absolutely fascinating.

You originally wrote about records in terms of

as people come and go

This implied employee records for which there are very good reasons for retaining such information securely for a number of years e.g. For use in writing references

 

[Minty]

You can certainly keep their name on file, even if you delete all their other "personal" information.

You may have a responsibility to record who carried out a certain part of a process, without their EmpID/name you have lost that data.

 

[bobunknown]

You originally wrote about records in terms of

Quote:
as people come and go

Damn I knew this would be my fault. Naw I was referring to businesses as people cause im special.
Now we know