Automatic account deactivation and deletion

By default, user accounts on ThingLink remain active indefinitely unless they are manually deactivated and deleted by administrator users through the Users page.

You can configure automatic account deactivation and deletion to remove inactive user accounts and help you meet data privacy requirements.

Overview

Account deactivation and deletion are optional settings that can be configured via your Organization Settings page. When enabled, ThingLink can automatically deactivate user accounts that have been inactive for a specified number of days and/or permanently delete deactivated accounts after a separate period. You can configure either setting on its own or enable both.

Automatic deletion applies to both manually and automatically deactivated accounts, even if automatic deactivation is not enabled.

When automatic deletion is enabled, the period between account deactivation and deletion allows administrator users to either restore the accounts or archive content created by the deactivated users before their accounts are permanently deleted. If no action is taken during this period, both the user accounts and their content will be deleted.

You can set different inactivity periods for different user roles (e.g. teachers and students).

How to configure automatic account deletion

Important: Please make sure to either restore or delete any user accounts you have already deactivated before enabling automatic deletion. This will help prevent unintentional data loss

1. As the administrator of your ThingLink account, go to the 'Organization' page.
2. Select the Settings tab and scroll down to the "Account deactivation and deletion" setting.
3. Click the Edit button. This will bring up a new window where you can set the inactivity period for different user roles and the period before deactivated accounts are deleted.
4. Enter a number of days for each setting you want to enable. Leave the other fields blank, then click Save.

Note that you can enable automatic deactivation for one user role without enabling it for the other. For example, you can set the inactivity period for Student accounts and leave it blank for Teacher accounts. This will ensure that only Student accounts are deactivated automatically.

You can also enable automatic deletion without enabling automatic deactivation. In that case, the deletion period applies to accounts deactivated manually.

Once automatic deactivation is configured, ThingLink will check the last activity date for all user accounts under your license. Accounts that have been inactive for the specified number of days will be automatically deactivated. If automatic deletion is enabled, deactivated accounts will be permanently deleted after the number of days you set, whether they were deactivated automatically or manually.

Example configurations

1. Automatic deactivation only

Settings: Deactivate students after: 365 days; Deactivate teachers after: blank; Delete after deactivation: blank.

After Student A has been inactive for 365 days, their account is deactivated. Since automatic deletion is not enabled, it will remain deactivated until an administrator restores or manually deletes it. Teacher accounts are not automatically deactivated.

2. Automatic deletion only

Settings: Deactivate teachers after: blank; Deactivate students after: blank; Delete after deactivation: 60 days.

ThingLink does not automatically deactivate inactive users. However, if an administrator manually deactivates Student B, their account will be permanently deleted 60 days after deactivation unless it is restored or deleted manually first. This can also apply to accounts that were already deactivated when automatic deletion was enabled.

3. Automatic deactivation and deletion

Settings: Deactivate teachers after: 700 days; Deactivate students after: 335 days; Delete after deactivation: 30 days.

After Student A has been inactive for 335 days, their account is deactivated. If the account is not manually restored or deleted during the next 30 days, it will be permanently deleted - along with all associated content and data - on the 365th day of inactivity. Teacher accounts are deactivated after 700 days of inactivity and deleted 30 days later.

Miscellaneous notes & frequently asked questions

• These settings are available on all organizational accounts.
• Remember that data deletion is permanent. The ThingLink team cannot recover any data once an account is permanently deleted, so make sure the deletion period gives you enough time to restore accounts or archive content if needed.
• These settings do not affect administrator users. Inactive administrator users must be deleted manually if needed.
• The deletion period is counted from the date an account was deactivated, not from the user's last activity.
• ThingLink checks for inactive accounts and performs deactivations and deletions once per day, around midnight UTC.

Please contact our support team if you have any questions regarding this setting.