Webex is removing the option to retain messaging data for an indefinite time period. At present, we do not have a default retention period. Which means that if you have not set a retention policy, Webex retains your user-generated content indefinitely.

This retention applies to new as well as historical data. For example, If the retention policy is set to 360 days and takes into effect from 31st Jan 2023, a meeting recording generated on or before 5th Feb 2022, gets deleted. Similarly, with the retention period set to 360 days, a meeting recording generated on 1st October 2022 is deleted by 26 September 2023.

By introducing a default retention period, we're helping you manage the lifecycle of your user-generated content, reduce your data footprint, and ensure you can meet compliance and regulatory standards.

This change applies to user-generated content for all enterprise Webex customers.

This change does not affect you if you already defined a retention policy. Your retention period stays the same.

The default retention period is changing early in 2023. The change is sooner for those customers without Pro Pack.

If you don't do anything, we set your retention period to the new default on the date given above.

If you don't want to keep user-generated data, or you don't care about how we handle this data, you don't need to do anything. We'll stop keeping the data indefinitely; instead, we'll purge it after the new default retention period.

If you want to control your user-generated Webex content, these are your options:

• Change your organization's retention period through Control Hub:

  Table 2. Retention period choices

  Data type	Do you have Pro Pack?	Minimum	Maximum	Default
  Messages, files, whiteboards	No	1 day	360 days	360 days
  	Yes	1 day	3600 days	360 days
  Recordings, transcripts	No	7 days	360 days	360 days
  	Yes	7 days	3600 days	360 days

  The retention controls are not yet available in Control Hub unless you have Pro Pack. We intend to make the controls available for all enterprise customers in January 2023.

• Consider upgrading to Pro Pack if you want to retain data for longer than the new limits.
• Consider using eDiscovery for managing data for compliance.
• Consider integrating with your data archiving tools if you want to take user-generated Webex content to an "offline" copy.
• Subscribe to our Data retention article to be notified when this change happens.
• Contact your Cisco account representative if necessary.