A housing authority must keep gold case metrics for statutory reporting longer than bronze chat transcripts. How should retention be designed?

Setting shorter retention on bronze chat transcripts and longer retention on gold case metrics is the correct retention design when a housing authority must keep gold case metrics for statutory reporting longer than bronze chat transcripts. Retention should follow data class and legal need: raw conversational bronze content is higher sensitivity and lower long-term statutory value, while gold metrics often underpin mandated civic reporting and must survive longer.

Setting equal retention on bronze chat transcripts and gold case metrics for audit use misses the requirement because identical windows cannot satisfy different legal needs—it would either keep sensitive bronze transcripts too long or purge gold metrics before the statutory reporting horizon ends. Setting longer retention on bronze chat transcripts and shorter retention on gold case metrics reverses the mandate because it retains higher-sensitivity raw bronze longer while deleting statutory gold early, failing reporting compliance. Setting time travel retention to seven days for bronze chat transcripts and gold case metrics confuses Delta version history with data retention because time travel only controls how long prior versions are recoverable, not how long the current gold metrics must survive for statutory reporting.

Exam caveat: Layer-specific retention is a frequent exam theme—bronze/raw often shorter, gold/reporting often longer when statutes demand it. Retention is independent of medallion quality rules; a gold table can still need masks or row filters while it lives. Legal hold may suspend deletion for specific case IDs even when the default bronze window has elapsed.

Operational check: Document statutory retention for gold case metrics versus policy retention for bronze chat transcripts, configure distinct windows on each layer, verify aged bronze transcripts are removed while gold metrics remain through the reporting horizon, and confirm no shadow transcript stores exist outside Unity Catalog.