Data Retention Policy

Last updated: 1 November 2026

This policy explains how long Lost Cousins Limited keeps the information we hold about you, and when we delete it. It goes with our Privacy Policy and our Terms and Conditions.

Why we keep your information

LostCousins exists to put relatives researching the same ancestors in touch with each other. When you enter ancestors from the censuses, you are asking us to keep looking for matches on your behalf. Matches often come years later, when someone else joins or adds their entries. While you have ancestors on the site, keeping your entries in our database is the service you signed up for. Not signing in for a long time does not mean you have lost interest, so we do not delete you for that alone.

If you have entered no ancestors, the only reason we hold your details is to keep in touch with you. When that is no longer possible, or you no longer want it, we delete them.

How long we keep your account

If you ask us to delete your account, we do it within one month and usually within a few days. You can do it yourself on My Details or from the link in any of our emails.
If you have ancestors on the site, we keep your account for as long as we can reach you by email and you have not asked to leave. It does not matter how long it is since you last signed in.

If you have not signed in for 3 years, we will send you a short email to check that you are still there, with news of what is new on the site and two choices: keep your account, or delete it.
If you have no ancestors on the site, your account exists so that you can enter your ancestors and be matched with your cousins, and so that we can send you our newsletter.
- If you receive our newsletter, we keep your account for as long as our emails reach you, however long it is since you signed in.
- If you do not receive our newsletter and have not signed in for more than a year, we delete your account.
- If you have never subscribed, we also delete your account within a month if you unsubscribe from our emails or report one as spam.
If we can no longer reach you, whether or not you have ancestors on the site: when our emails to you keep failing, we try to reach you in turn at your backup email address, through the person you named to inherit your account, and at your postal address. If we still cannot reach you after about a year, we delete your account. A member we cannot contact gets no newsletter and cannot sign in, and when a cousin is matched with them it only leads to disappointment, because we cannot put them in touch. The year is there to give us time to try every way of reaching you.
Subscribers, including lifetime subscribers, are never deleted under rules 2, 3 or 4 while their subscription lasts, or for a year after it ends. Until then their accounts are deleted only at their own request, or under rule 6. If our emails to you have stopped working, we will tell you when you come to renew, and you will need to give us an email address that works before you can renew.
When a member dies, we stop all email to their account as soon as a member of our staff has confirmed the death. We keep the account and its ancestors for 2 years. During that time the person the member named, or another relative, can take over the research. After that we delete the account.

What happens to your ancestors when your account is deleted

Your account details (name, email and postal addresses, sign-in links and preferences) are deleted. Your census entries are separated from you and kept under an anonymous placeholder. They can no longer be linked to you, and no other member is ever shown them as a match.

Other records

Payments and subscriptions: kept for 6 years after the end of the financial year in which you paid, as UK tax law requires, even if your account is deleted sooner. After that, the record is kept only in a form that no longer identifies you.
Email blocks: if you unsubscribe, complain or ask to be deleted, your email address stays on our email provider's "do not send" list. It is used only so that we never email you again.
Email delivery records (when we emailed you and whether it was delivered): kept for 3 years, then deleted. Anonymous totals are kept.
The history of changes to your details: kept while your account exists and deleted with it.
Requests to recover an old account: deleted 6 months after the last activity on the request.
Messages sent through the site's feedback form: deleted 2 years after the matter is closed.
Why members leave: when you close your account we may keep the reason you gave and whether you had ancestors or a subscription. We keep nothing that identifies you.
Backups: our backups are replaced on a rolling 30-day cycle. Anything we delete is gone from our backups within 30 days.
The LostCousins Forum: deleting your LostCousins account does not delete the posts you have made on the Forum. Ask us if you want your Forum account removed as well.

Before we delete an account under these rules

Where we can still email you, we warn you at least 60 days in advance, with a reminder 30 days before. Signing in, entering an ancestor, subscribing or choosing to receive the newsletter keeps your account. We cannot warn you when our emails to you fail or you have told us not to email you.
When the new site opens: no account with ancestors or payments will be deleted for inactivity during the first 12 months after the new site opens to all members. Sign-in dates carried over from our old website were sometimes wrong, and this gives every member time to sign in to the new site and record a true date.

Questions

If you have any questions about how long we keep your information, please email us at info@lostcousins.com. Our Privacy Policy explains your rights, including how to ask us to delete your information sooner.