Data Retention Policy

Last updated: 2 September 2026

UCS keeps data only as long as reasonably necessary for the stated purpose, compatible lawful purposes, legal obligations, security, audit, evidence and defense of rights.

Account/membership data may be kept during the relationship and a reasonable post-relationship period. Petition signature evidence may be kept through the campaign, submission and a reasonable evidence period; organizer copies are subject to their own documented retention duties. Webinar records may be kept through the event/follow-up. Certificate identity, issuance and revocation records may be kept long-term because authenticity verification can require durable records. BPR records are kept as required by applicable professional-development rules and audit needs. Security/admin logs may be retained according to risk and incident needs. Raw optional analytics should generally have a shorter lifecycle before aggregation/deletion where feasible.

Deletion from active systems may not instantly erase backups, immutable audit records, fraud-prevention hashes, legal holds or already anonymized/aggregated statistics. Access to residual copies should be restricted until expiry/overwrite.

Contact

Questions, privacy requests, complaints and security reports: info@uasurgeons.org. UCS may reasonably verify identity and authority before acting on a request.

Membership application document retention

Raw membership verification files are not intended to be retained indefinitely merely because they were uploaded. While an application is pending, UCS may retain the application and supporting files for review. After a decision, UCS may delete the raw file, keep a restricted archive copy, or retain only verification metadata depending on the continuing need to administer membership, support re-verification, handle an appeal or complaint, prevent or investigate fraud, comply with law or protect legal rights.

For an approved member, UCS may retain core membership and verification records for the membership period and for a reasonable period after membership ends where needed for governance, audit, disputes, authenticity of prior decisions or legal claims. For a rejected or withdrawn application, UCS should retain raw supporting files only for a limited period reasonably necessary for reconsideration, anti-fraud, audit or claims, unless a longer legal hold or another lawful need applies.

Where practical and sufficient, UCS should prefer retaining a verification record such as document type, issuer, relevant date, masked identifier, verification status, method, reviewer and timestamps instead of an unrestricted full document copy. Deletion from an active interface may not immediately remove a file from backups, immutable audit records or a legal hold. Access to retained verification files should remain restricted.