Email retention periods are defined by the legal regulations governing email archiving (German Commercial Code [HGB], German Fiscal Code [AO], GoBD). Emails relevant under commercial law must be retained for six years. Emails relevant under tax law must be retained for ten years. In practical terms, this means that all archived emails must be kept in archived form for ten years.

As of today, Benno MailArchiv does not have a "cleanup" function or similar. Accordingly, emails are never automatically deleted, neither after 10 years, nor after 20, 30 years, or whatever.

Deleting emails (like all root access to the server on which Benno MailArchiv is configured) is entirely the responsibility of the executing administrator. Therefore, Benno MailArchiv 2.x does not offer any configuration settings for setting retention periods, etc.

Conversely, the storage solution used provides protection against unauthorized or unwanted deletion.

Benno MailArchiv archives emails by default at the file system level (alternatively, in Amazon S3-compatible object storage solutions). With file system-based storage, it is completely irrelevant whether the storage is on local hard drives, NAS storage, SAN, or similar. In short: Benno MailArchiv archives on all storage systems whose storage areas can be mounted via NFS or CIFS (as a file system). Therefore, choosing a storage solution that enforces retention periods (i.e., guaranteed deletion periods) can be a solution here.

Eine für Benno MailArchiv zertifizierte Speicherlösung, die Retention Policies anbietet und unterstützt, ist beispielsweise FAST LTA Silent Cubes (www.fast-lta.de). Neben FAST-LTA bieten weitere Anbieter auf dem Markt Storagelösungen an, die hinsichtlich Retention Policies über vergleichbare Funktionalität wie FAST LTA verfügen.

As long as archiving by Benno MailArchiv takes place on local hard drives of the server, protection against deletion or manipulation is ensured insofar as no one except the root user can manipulate or delete the emails.

Die Einzelheiten zu diesem Sachverhalt sind auch in der Benno MailArchiv Systembeschreibung (https://www.benno-mailarchiv.de/systembeschreibung/) erklärt, die Bestandteil jeder Verfahrensdokumentation zur GoBD-konformen E-Mail-Archivierung sein sollte. (Eine geeignete Verfahrensdokumentation muss für die GoBD-konforme Archivierung von E-Mails zwingend erstellt werden, vgl. GoBD, 10.1 Verfahrensdokumentation, Ziff. 151-153. Produktzertifizierungen von Mailarchivierungslösungen sind in diesem Zusammenhang rechtsunwirksam (vgl. GoBD, 12. Zertifizierung und Software-Testate, Ziff. 179 und 181) und ersetzen bei etwaigem Vorhandensein nicht eine geeignete Verfahrensdokumentation.).

The question of deleting emails no longer subject to archiving requirements after the retention period has expired can be addressed both technically and organizationally. The GoBD (Principles for the Proper Keeping and Use of Books, Records and Documents in Electronic Form and for Data Access) neither stipulates that emails must be deleted after the retention period has expired, nor whether or not this must happen automatically.

Nicht weiter aufbewahrungspflichtige E-Mails können anhand der Container- und Boxen-Struktur der Archivablage in Benno MailArchiv einfach und übersichtlich aus dem System entfernt werden.

These considerations do not constitute legal advice. They serve only as general information. We assume no liability for the accuracy or completeness of the information provided. All liability is excluded.