Compliance Ready: Customize retention periods to meet regulatory requirements for your industry.
Message Data vs Metadata
Understanding the difference between data and metadata helps you set appropriate retention policies:Message Metadata
Message Metadata
Minimal tracking information kept for delivery monitoring:
- Message ID and email subject
- From and recipient email addresses
- Message direction (outbound/inbound)
- Delivery status (received, delivered, bounced, failed)
- Delivery attempt logs and timestamps
Message Data
Message Data
Complete email content and details:
- All email headers
- HTML and plain text body content
- File attachments
- Full message payload
Account-Wide Settings
Configure default retention periods for your entire account:Access Retention Settings
- Log in to your AhaSend Dashboard
- Navigate to Account Settings
- Find the Retention Policy section
Set Default Periods
Configure retention periods:
- Message Metadata: 1-30 days (default: 30 days)
- Message Data: 0-30 days (default: 30 days)
Minimum Requirements: Message metadata requires at least 1 day retention for delivery tracking. Message data can be set to 0 days for immediate deletion.
Save Changes
Apply settings to all future emails sent through your account.
Existing Data: Changes only affect new emails. Previously sent emails retain their original retention settings.
Per-Message Overrides
Override account defaults for specific emails using special headers:SMTP Headers
When sending via SMTP, add these headers to individual emails:ahasend-metadata-retention
ahasend-metadata-retention
Controls metadata retention period:
- Value: Integer between 1 and 30 (days)
- Purpose: Set how long delivery tracking data is kept
- Example:
ahasend-metadata-retention: 7
(keep for 7 days)
ahasend-data-retention
ahasend-data-retention
Controls full email data retention:
- Value: Integer between 0 and 30 (days)
- Purpose: Set how long complete email content is stored
- Example:
ahasend-data-retention: 0
(delete immediately)
API v1 Implementation
For API v1, include retention headers in your message payload:API v2 Implementation
For API v2, use the dedicated retention fields:Full API v2 Documentation: See the Create Message API reference for complete documentation on all available fields and options.
Header Removal: Retention headers are automatically removed before email delivery and never visible to recipients.
Common Use Cases
Financial Services
Financial Services
Compliance Requirements:
- Short retention for sensitive financial data
- Metadata retention for audit trails
- Metadata: 7-30 days
- Data: 0-1 days for sensitive emails
Healthcare
Healthcare
HIPAA Compliance:
- Minimal retention of patient information
- Quick deletion of medical data
- Metadata: 1-7 days
- Data: 0 days for patient emails
Marketing
Marketing
Campaign Tracking:
- Longer retention for analytics
- Full content for A/B testing
- Metadata: 30 days
- Data: 30 days
Transactional
Transactional
Order Confirmations:
- Medium retention for customer service
- Balance between utility and privacy
- Metadata: 30 days
- Data: 7-14 days
Best Practices
Compliance Strategy
Compliance Strategy
Develop a Retention Policy:
- Review legal requirements for your industry
- Consider customer privacy expectations
- Document your retention decisions
- Regularly audit and update policies
- Start with shorter periods and extend if needed
- Use per-message overrides for sensitive content
- Monitor compliance with internal policies
Operational Considerations
Operational Considerations
Balance Compliance and Functionality:
- Keep metadata longer for delivery troubleshooting
- Delete sensitive data quickly while retaining delivery records
- Consider customer service needs for support queries
- Track delivery issues that may require message data
- Review retention effectiveness regularly
- Adjust policies based on operational needs