Data Handling

This page describes how faktoora manages data residency, retention, backup, and deletion.

Data Residency

All faktoora production infrastructure is hosted in Germany by an EU-based, ISO 27001 certified infrastructure provider. Customer data — including invoices, contacts, and account information — resides exclusively within the European Union.

Data Retention

faktoora retains data in accordance with German and European legal requirements.

Business Documents

Data type	Retention	Legal basis
Outgoing invoices	10 years from end of calendar year	GoBD, AO § 147
Incoming invoices	10 years from end of calendar year	GoBD, AO § 147
Offers, letters, reminders	6 years from end of calendar year	GoBD
Peppol transmission records	10 years	Peppol agreements, GoBD
VeriFactu registration records	10 years	Spanish tax law
Bank transaction data	10 years	GoBD
Subscription and payment records	10 years	GoBD

Operational Data

Data type	Retention	Purpose
User accounts	Until deletion requested	Service provision
Session data	24 hours (auto-expiry)	Authentication
Activity and audit logs	Indefinite	Security, compliance
Export archives	90 days	Temporary user downloads
ICT incident records	Minimum 5 years	DORA compliance

Backups

Backups are encrypted and retained for up to 24 months for disaster recovery purposes. Backup data follows the same access restrictions as production data.

Deletion

Account Deletion

Users can request account deletion at any time. Upon cancellation:

1. The account is deactivated — users can no longer log in
2. Personal data (name, email, settings) is anonymised or deleted upon request
3. Invoice and financial data is retained per legal requirements (see retention periods above)
4. Once legal retention periods expire, remaining data can be permanently deleted upon request

GDPR Erasure Requests

We honour all GDPR erasure requests to the extent permitted by law. German accounting law (GoBD) requires retention of invoice and financial records, which takes precedence over erasure requests during the applicable retention period. We will inform you of any limitations when processing your request.

Backup Retention

Data deleted from production may persist in encrypted backups for the backup retention period (up to 24 months). Backups follow the same access controls and encryption standards as production data.

Data Portability

faktoora provides self-service data export in multiple formats:

Format	Use case
CSV	Spreadsheet-compatible tabular data
XLSX	Microsoft Excel format
JSON	Machine-readable structured data
XML	Standards-compliant e-invoice formats (ZUGFeRD, XRechnung, Peppol UBL)

Data Integrity

Invoice data integrity is ensured through:

• Immutable audit trail that is tamper-evident and independently verifiable
• Parameterised database queries preventing injection attacks
• Frozen calculation functions — core invoice calculation logic is battle-tested and protected from modification
• Backup integrity verification with regular automated checks

Questions?

For questions about data handling, contact privacy@faktoora.com.