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Two compliance duties pull in opposite directions. One asks Tars to remove a person’s data on request. The other asks Tars to keep records that must not disappear while a dispute or investigation is open. Erasure serves the first duty, and a legal hold serves the second.
Neither feature has a control in the dashboard or the API. Tars support runs erasures and places and lifts legal holds. To ask for either one, write to support.

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Erasure for end users

Erasure removes one end user’s personal data on request, for example after a data subject access request. Tars support runs it for your organization, for up to 100 end users in one request. An erasure replaces the end user’s profile fields, conversation details, message content, and CSAT feedback with a dated redaction marker. It also deletes any original values that personal data protection kept in Mask mode. The work runs in the background, so a large history can take some time to finish. When the erasure of an end user finishes, your audit log records security.pii_erased in the Data access category. The description reads TARS Support erased end-user personal data. Required audit evidence stays intact. Deleting an end user profile is not erasure. The Delete user button on a profile removes the person from your list and conversations, but it does not redact the stored data. See Organize and moderate end users. A legal hold is a flag that Tars staff place on one organization, with a written reason. While the hold is active, Tars does not run destructive cleanup for that organization. The hold stays until Tars staff lift it. An organization can carry more than one hold at a time, and cleanup stays blocked until the last one is lifted. A hold covers the whole organization. Tars does not offer holds scoped to one agent, one end user, or one date range.

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What a hold blocks

While a hold is active, these operations pause for the organization:
  • Retention-based disposal of expired records. Records that pass the end of their retention period stay in place. See Data retention.
  • Deletion of expired original values kept by personal data protection.
  • Deletion of knowledge base documents and purge of a deleted knowledge base.
  • Cleanup of disconnected toolkits.
  • The final teardown of a deleted organization. If the grace period ends during a hold, the deletion waits. See Organization lifecycle.
  • Erasure. Tars support cannot start an erasure while the organization is under a hold.
A hold does not stop anyone from using the product. An Admin can still delete an end user profile, an agent, or a knowledge base document. The record is marked as deleted at once and hidden from the dashboard, but the underlying data is not purged until the hold is lifted.

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What happens when a hold is lifted

When Tars staff lift the last active hold, destructive cleanup is allowed again. A deleted organization’s teardown that stopped on the hold does not restart on its own. Tars staff restart it, and it keeps the original grace period deadline instead of starting a new one. Placing a hold and lifting a hold each create an audit event in your organization’s log, named legal_hold.placed and legal_hold.lifted. The description reads TARS Support placed a legal hold or TARS Support lifted a legal hold. The actor is masked to TARS Support in your view, the same as any other staff action. The Event filter offers only the events your organization has recorded. Until a hold is placed, neither name is in the list, and the Support group does not appear. After the first hold, both names appear there. See Search and export the audit log. The reason the Tars staff member wrote for the hold is stored with the event. See How Tars support accesses your organization.