Data Retention: Understanding Lexiik Backups

Data retention determines how long Lexiik keeps the history of your changes and snapshots. Understanding this system allows you to optimize your plan and secure your strategic content.

What is data retention?

Data retention refers to the period during which Lexiik keeps snapshots of your product listings. These snapshots enable the Rollback feature to restore previous versions.

What data is covered?

Lexiik automatically saves several types of data:

• Product snapshots: Complete state of a product listing before AI modification (title, description, images, price, stock, categories, custom attributes)
• Optimization history: Traceability of all actions performed (bulk optimization, AI generation, CMS synchronization)
• Audit logs: User action journal (who did what, when, from which IP)
• SEO audit reports: Score history and KPI evolution over time

Each data type has its own retention period, optimized based on its usefulness and storage volume.

Why limit the retention period?

Limiting retention serves several objectives:

• GDPR compliance: The European regulation requires that data not be kept longer than necessary ("data minimization")
• Performance: An overly large history would slow down the interface and rollback operations
• Storage costs: Snapshots are replicated across 3 datacenters to ensure resilience, which triples hosting costs
• Security: Less stored data = reduced attack surface in case of a cyberattack attempt

Retention periods by plan

Here is a summary of retention periods based on your Lexiik subscription:

Free Plan: 24 hours

The Free plan offers 24-hour retention to test the Rollback feature. This allows you to:

• Undo an AI modification on the same day
• Experiment with AI without immediate risk
• Discover the versioning system

Limitation: after 24 hours, snapshots are automatically deleted. If you need to revert to an older version, you must upgrade to a paid plan before the deadline expires.

Starter Plan: 7 days

The Starter plan keeps your snapshots for 7 days, which covers:

• A full week of stress-free experimentation
• Enough time to analyze the impact of changes on your KPIs
• The ability to roll back after a weekend or holiday

This plan is ideal for small stores that optimize their catalog on an occasional basis.

Pro Plan: 30 days

The Pro plan offers 30 days of retention, a full month. It is the most popular plan because it allows you to:

• Run A/B tests over several weeks
• Analyze the SEO impact of changes (Google takes 2-4 weeks to re-index)
• Restore content even after a vacation or extended absence
• Comply with industry-standard backup practices (30 days = the norm)

Expert Plan: 90 days

The Expert plan offers 90 days (3 months) of retention, suited to the needs of professional e-commerce:

• Quarterly history for accounting audits
• Ability to compare editorial strategies across multiple seasons
• Automatic snapshot export in JSON format
• API access to history for advanced integrations

Enterprise Plan: 120 customizable days

The Enterprise plan offers 120 days (4 months) of retention by default, with the option to extend on request:

• Customizable retention up to 365 days (1 year)
• Automatic export to your infrastructure (S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob)
• Configurable geographic replication (datacenters of your choice)
• Snapshot availability SLA: 99.95%

What happens after expiration?

Automatic and permanent deletion

When a snapshot reaches the end of its retention period, it is automatically and permanently deleted from our servers. This process is irreversible and complies with GDPR principles (right to be forgotten).

Deletion process:

1. D-7 days: A reminder email is sent to account administrators (Pro plans and above)
2. D-1 day: Final notification email with a link for manual export
3. D-Day: Automatic deletion at midnight (Paris time)
4. D+1: Permanent erasure across all 3 geographic replications
5. D+30: Erasure of security backups (GDPR compliance)

Can I upgrade to recover expired snapshots?

No, upgrading your plan after a snapshot has expired does not allow you to recover it. The retention period applies from the snapshot creation date, not from the upgrade date.

Concrete example:

• You are on the Free plan (24h retention)
• You generate an AI description on Monday at 10am
• The snapshot expires on Tuesday at 10am
• You upgrade to the Pro plan (30 days) on Wednesday
• You cannot recover Monday's snapshot (already deleted)
• New snapshots created after the upgrade benefit from 30-day retention

How to optimize your retention

Regular manual export (all plans)

You can manually export your snapshots at any time from the Lexiik interface:

1. Go to Products > Select one or more products
2. Click on Bulk actions > Export history
3. Choose the format: JSON (complete) or CSV (simplified)
4. Download the generated ZIP file

This method is free and available on all plans, but requires regular manual action.

Automatic export (Expert and Enterprise Plans)

Expert and Enterprise plans can set up automatic weekly or monthly exports:

• Destination: Email, FTP, SFTP, S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob, Dropbox, Google Drive
• Frequency: Daily, weekly, monthly
• Format: JSON (with complete metadata), CSV (simplified table), SQL (database dump)
• Encryption: Optional, with PGP key provided by the client

Configure from Settings > Automatic backups.

Hybrid strategy: Personal cloud + Lexiik

For maximum security, some of our clients combine:

• Lexiik: Short-term retention (30 days) for daily rollback and A/B testing
• Personal cloud: Monthly export to S3 Glacier or Google Cloud Archive for long-term storage (1-7 years) at low cost

This approach reduces costs (no need for the Enterprise plan with extended retention) while maintaining a complete history for legal or accounting audits.

GDPR compliance and data protection

The 6 GDPR principles applied to snapshots

Lexiik strictly applies the 6 principles of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation):

1. Lawfulness: Snapshots are created with your explicit consent (accepted during registration)
2. Purpose limitation: Data is used only for rollback, never sold to third parties
3. Data minimization: Only data necessary for rollback is retained (no superfluous logs)
4. Accuracy: Snapshots are exact copies (SHA-256 hash to verify integrity)
5. Storage limitation: Clear and automated retention periods (24h to 120 days)
6. Integrity and confidentiality: AES-256 encryption, role-based access control

Your rights over your data

As a Lexiik user, you have all GDPR rights:

• Right of access: Download all your snapshots at any time
• Right to rectification: Modify or correct inaccurate data
• Right to erasure: Immediately delete your snapshots (before natural expiration)
• Right to data portability: Export your data in standardized JSON format
• Right to object: Disable automatic snapshot creation (with security confirmation)

All these actions are available from Settings > Privacy and GDPR.

Summary

Data retention is a balance between security, performance, and legal compliance. Lexiik offers you complete flexibility to choose the duration that matches your needs:

• 24h (Free): No-commitment testing
• 7 days (Starter): Small stores with occasional optimizations
• 30 days (Pro): Professional standard, A/B tests, SEO analysis
• 90 days (Expert): Advanced e-commerce, quarterly audits
• 120+ days (Enterprise): Legal compliance, custom retention