Automate document retention policy enforcement and scheduled deletion

Steps

1. Define retention schedules by document category (e.g., contracts: 7 years post-expiry, HR records: varies by jurisdiction, financial records: 7 years) in a retention policy registry; have the policy reviewed and approved by legal counsel.
2. Tag every document at ingestion with a document_category, creation_date, and computed retain_until date derived from the retention schedule; store these as metadata alongside the document.
3. Run a daily scheduled job to identify documents where retain_until < today and legal_hold_active = false; generate a deletion candidate list for review.
4. For automated deletion, require a second approval step (human or rule-based based on document sensitivity tier) before permanent deletion; log each deletion with document ID, hash of content at deletion time, deletion timestamp, and authorizing actor.
5. Check each deletion candidate against all active legal holds before deletion; documents under hold must never be deleted regardless of retention schedule expiry.
6. Retain deletion logs permanently (they are evidence of compliant destruction); store them separately from the deleted documents themselves.