Records Retention in Relational Database Systems: Bridging the Gap between Laws and Enforcement Actions

Relational databases contain a large number intertwined transaction level facts that can collectively (or independently) represent innumerable business records. In this paper we present a framework for defining business records contained in a database system as queries and then specifying retention policies over them. We also highlight several key issues for both policy makers and database administrators to consider when designing and implementing records retention policies over relationally stored records.