TECH COLUMN
Keep It or Toss It?
The Balancing Act of Data Retention BY WILLIAM THOMPSON NJ REALTORS® DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY
A
s a real estate professional,
license, your brokerage, and, above all
the expectations and procedures your
you’re entrusted with an
else, the public trust. There is no one-
brokerage has for you.
enormous amount of
size-fits-all approach when it comes to
personal details, from social security
data retention and it can certainly be a
numbers on rental applications to
balancing act when deciding whether to
bank account information in mortgage
destroy old records or keep them “just
QUICK TIP
documents, you have an obligation to
in case.” However, by simply keeping
ensure this information is safeguarded.
everything forever you could be opening
For more information on
While the best method to guarantee
yourself up to significant legal risk, even
information is protected is to not have it
with the best of intentions. Be sure to
to begin with, there are also regulatory
check with your brokerage to review
mandates that require you to retain
their data retention and information
information for the protection of your
security policies, which will outline
14 | NEW JERSEY REALTOR® | July/August 2022
safeguarding information, read the May/June issue of New Jersey Realtor® at issuu.com/newjerseyrealtor.
