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Clean desk and clean up in Outlook

At SDU, we take good care of the information we process as part of our work. Read how you can specifically tidy up your email.

Organise your email

  • In general, you can store both emails with general and sensitive personal data in Outlook. However, be aware of special deletion deadlines for emails with sensitive data.

    You should also be aware of emails that are otherwise of a grade worthy of protection, such as trade secrets, confidential information in connection with case processing or other. These should generally be deleted or moved to another approved system (WorkZone, OneDrive or SharePoint) as soon as possible after case processing is completed.

    Emails where you write with your colleagues about today's lunch, work together on a memo without confidential information or anything else can generally be stored in Outlook.

  • You are generally allowed to store emails with both general, confidential and sensitive personal data in Outlook as long as you have a legitimate purpose for storing them (e.g. when processing an application).

    However, sensitive and confidential data must be deleted or moved to e.g. WorkZone, if there is a journalling obligation, within a maximum of 30 days.

    It is not enough to simply move emails from Outlook to another approved system such as WorkZone, Onedrive or SharePoint, just to avoid having them in Outlook. If you no longer have a purpose for processing those emails, they must be deleted or entered records.

  • 1. Monthly/weekly/biannual deletion appointment/deletion day

    In practical terms, you can reserve time in your calendar to clean up your documents and Outlook. If you frequently process sensitive personal data, these hours/days may need to be more frequent because they can be stored in Outlook for a maximum of 30 days. However, if you only process general personal data in your email, the frequency can be lower.

    2. The search function in Outlook: The search function in Outlook

    You can use the search function in Outlook to search for emails to be deleted. For example, you can search for the following words: sick, fever, leave of absence, maternity leave, CPR or other.

    3. Assign policy

    As soon as an email arrives and you realise that it contains sensitive or confidential personal data, you can click "Delete after 30 days" under "Retention policy" in the email itself. This will automatically delete the email after 30 days and you don't have to worry about cleaning it up at a later date. However, be aware of any journalling obligations.

Protect information - physically and digitally

You don't want unauthorised access to sensitive information, so make sure you clean up - both physically and digitally.

Lock your computer when you leave it and don't leave valuables such as phones, iPads, papers or anything else in your office for unauthorised people to steal.

Only process personal data for as long as it is necessary for your work.

Clean desk principles

If you are unsure about how to process personal data, you can always follow the principles below and ensure that you comply with them.

Do you have any questions?

The GDPR and Information Security Coordinators are your local contact and advisor for day-to-day data protection and information security at SDU.

See also