Version: 1.0
Effective Date: 1 July 2026
Last Updated: 1 July 2026
Document Owner: DataSimplified (Pty) Ltd

Customer Data Ownership & Retention Policy

Your Data. Your Ownership. Our Responsibility.

At HRSimplified, we understand that your employee information is one of your organisation’s most valuable assets. Our role is to securely store and process that information on your behalf while ensuring you remain in control of your data at all times.

This policy explains who owns your data, how it is stored, how long it is retained, what happens when your subscription ends, and how you can access your information whenever you need it.

Data Ownership

All employee records, company information, documents, reports and other data entered into HRSimplified remain the exclusive property of the subscribing customer.

HRSimplified (DataSimplified (Pty) Ltd) does not claim ownership of any customer data.

In terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and, where applicable, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

  • The Customer is the Responsible Party (Controller).
  • HRSimplified is the Operator (Processor).

We process customer data solely for the purpose of providing the HRSimplified service.

We never sell customer data, use it for advertising, or disclose it to third parties except where required by law or authorised by the customer.

Secure Storage of Customer Data

Customer information is stored within secure cloud infrastructure using industry-standard security controls designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your data.

Our security measures include:

  • Encrypted communications (HTTPS/TLS)
  • Secure authentication
  • Role-based access controls
  • Password security policies
  • Audit logging
  • Infrastructure monitoring
  • Regular backups
  • Disaster recovery procedures
  • Controlled administrator access

More information can be found in our POPIA, GDPR & Security documentation.

Data Retention During Your Subscription

While your HRSimplified subscription remains active, your employee and company data will continue to be securely stored and available within the system.

There is no automatic deletion of historical employee information based on its age while your subscription remains active.

Many organisations prefer to retain complete employment histories for reporting, compliance, auditing and historical reference purposes, and HRSimplified supports this approach.

Should your organisation require the removal of specific historical records, you may contact HRSimplified. Where legally permissible and technically practical, we will assist in accordance with applicable legislation and our standard Professional Services.

Exporting Your Information

Customers may export employee information and reports at any time while their subscription is active.

HRSimplified provides numerous reporting and export options including:

We recommend exporting any information your organisation wishes to retain before your subscription expires.

Customers remain responsible for ensuring they have retained any information required for their own records.

Employee Documents

Employee documents and attachments are securely stored within each employee’s digital HR record.

Due to the way documents are managed within HRSimplified, employee documents cannot currently be exported as a single bulk download.

However, customers can generate a Document Report listing all documents stored against each employee. This enables organisations to identify and download any documents they wish to retain before their subscription ends.

Cancelling Your Subscription

When a subscription is cancelled:

  • Access to the HRSimplified environment ends once the subscription expires.
  • The customer’s HR environment is securely archived.
  • Customer data remains securely stored for five (5) years from the subscription end date, unless legislation requires a longer retention period.

This retention period provides customers with the opportunity to recover historical HR information should it be required for legal, operational or compliance purposes.

Accessing Archived Data

During the five-year retention period, customers may request temporary access to their archived HRSimplified environment.

Access can be restored by purchasing a minimum one-month subscription, allowing authorised users to:

  • Log into the system
  • Access employee records
  • Run reports
  • Export employee information
  • Download available records
  • Retrieve historical HR data

Customers may also request a manual data extraction from our support team, subject to our standard Professional Services fees.

Permanent Deletion

At the end of the five-year retention period following subscription cancellation, and unless a longer retention period is required by law, customer data will be permanently deleted or securely anonymised.

Once this process has been completed, the information cannot be recovered.

Artificial Intelligence

HRSimplified will never use customer employee data to train artificial intelligence or machine learning models without the customer’s explicit written consent.

Where AI-powered functionality is available within HRSimplified, customer information is processed only to deliver the requested feature and is not used to improve or train underlying AI models unless expressly authorised by the customer.

Customer Responsibilities

Customers remain responsible for:

  • Collecting employee information lawfully.
  • Providing appropriate employee privacy notices where required.
  • Managing administrator and user access.
  • Removing users who should no longer have access.
  • Exporting any information required before subscription expiry.
  • Securely storing any exported information outside HRSimplified.
  • Complying with all applicable employment and data protection legislation.

Need Assistance?

If you have any questions regarding customer data ownership, exports, archived access or data retention, our support team will be happy to assist.

Phone: +27 87 378 1154

Email: [email protected]