ArcGIS Online Data Retention Policy

If you use Swarthmore's ArcGIS Online system to save map data, please be aware that your access to that data is only maintained while you continue to have an active role at the College

We will maintain College ArcGIS Online accounts in the system for a year post graduation or one year after an individual leaves College employment, but ArcGIS Online accounts and data for users who’ve left the College will be deleted from the ArcGIS Online system after one year, post departure.

Expense

Unfortunately, like everything these days, data storage has real costs. As ESRI has begun limiting the amount of storage we can maintain, and has begun more carefully tracking the costs associated with the storage of content in ArcGIS Online, we must practice better hygiene in our management of our ArcGIS Online resources.

What to do?

It is important that departments, faculty, and those who may share a collaboration relationship with someone to review ArcGIS Online content they may rely on for data collection, or may have collaborated on, and make sure that the current owner of that content is an active person employed or studying at Swarthmore.

Please review any ArcGIS Online content hosted on Swarthmore's ArcGIS Online instance, or refered to by web pages you control, to make sure that the ownership of that content is with someone currently employed by the College. Also review any content that you are a collaborator on, or that you don’t own but that you rely on, to make sure you would not loose work if when that owner leaves the College, and their data dissappears.

Help is available!

ITS can can help transfer ArcGIS Online content for which the ownership is out of date, or is with someone who has left the College within a year. Contact ITS Support for assistance. But note, once an account is deleted, any associated ArcGIS Online content is lost to us, and we will not be able to recover it.

Anyone can acquire (purchase) a personal ArcGIS Online account, and we can help you transfer your content to that resource. Similarly, many other higher educational institutions have ArcGIS Online presences, so for those moving to another such institution, you may well be able to transfer your content to that institution's ArcGIS Online system. Again, contact ITS Support for assistance.