Closing your Yelp account removes your public profile and reviews from display, but Yelp retains your underlying personal data for legal, dispute resolution, and agreement enforcement purposes for an unspecified period.
This analysis describes what Yelp's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
Account closure does not result in immediate deletion of personal data; Yelp retains data indefinitely for broadly stated legal and business purposes, which means personal information persists even after a user has ended their relationship with the platform.
Interpretive note: The policy does not specify defined retention periods by data category, leaving the practical duration of post-closure data retention ambiguous.
Users who close their Yelp account should understand that their personal information, including account data and interaction history, is retained by Yelp for an unspecified period after closure for legal compliance and dispute resolution purposes; this retained data is not publicly visible but remains in Yelp's systems.
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Baseten shall allow for and contribute to audits, including on-premise inspections, by Customer or an auditor mandated by Customer in relation to the Processing of Customer Personal Data by Baseten.
Prighter gives you an easy way to exercise your privacy-related rights (e.g. requests to access or erase personal data).
questions regarding the Research Agreement, Study protocol, use of research data, or the exercise of data protection rights relating to research data should be directed to the Research Sponsor...
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"If you close your account, Yelp will, in the ordinary course of business, remove your profile information and reviews from view. We generally retain and use your personal information for as long as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.— Excerpt from Yelp's Yelp Privacy Policy
REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: GDPR Article 5(1)(e) requires personal data to be kept for no longer than necessary for the purposes for which it is processed (storage limitation principle), and indefinite or broadly defined retention periods may face regulatory scrutiny from EU/UK supervisory authorities. CCPA/CPRA grants California residents the right to request deletion of personal information, subject to exceptions for legal obligations and dispute resolution. The breadth of the exceptions cited (legal obligations, disputes, agreements) is common practice but may not satisfy the specificity GDPR requires for storage limitation. GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: Medium. The retention language is standard in industry practice but lacks specific retention periods for each data category, which creates exposure under GDPR's data minimization and storage limitation requirements. The absence of defined retention schedules in the policy text may also complicate responses to data subject access and deletion requests. JURISDICTION FLAGS: EU/EEA and UK users are most exposed given GDPR storage limitation requirements. California residents have deletion request rights under CCPA but are subject to the same exceptions Yelp cites. Quebec Law 25 also imposes retention limitation obligations. CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Organizations that create Yelp business accounts or advertise on Yelp should be aware that data associated with those accounts may be retained after account closure under the same framework. Vendor contracts should address data deletion timelines. COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Compliance teams should request and review Yelp's data retention schedule, if available, to understand actual retention periods by data category. When responding to data subject deletion requests, teams should document the specific legal basis for each category of data retained post-closure. A records retention policy aligned with GDPR's storage limitation principle and CCPA deletion rights should be maintained.
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Account closure does not result in immediate deletion of personal data; Yelp retains data indefinitely for broadly stated legal and business purposes, which means personal information persists even after a user has ended their relationship with the platform.
Users who close their Yelp account should understand that their personal information, including account data and interaction history, is retained by Yelp for an unspecified period after closure for legal compliance and dispute resolution purposes; this retained data is not publicly visible but remains in Yelp's systems.
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