--- title: "What happens when a client asks us to delete their data" description: "A client can request deletion from their own account, confirm it by email, and change their mind for 48 hours. Here is the whole lifecycle, including what stays behind and why." url: "https://bookatu.com/en-nz/blog/what-happens-when-a-client-asks-us-to-delete-their-data" language: "en" section: "Blog" category: "Product" author: "The Bookatu team" published: "2026-07-27" updated: "2026-07-27" tags: ["gdpr for salons", "right to erasure", "delete client data", "client data privacy", "salon software gdpr"] --- # What happens when a client asks us to delete their data A client can request deletion from their own account, confirm it by email, and change their mind for 48 hours. Here is the whole lifecycle, including what stays behind and why. > **The short version** > > - Clients request deletion themselves, from their own account on your booking page. It never arrives as a vague email you have to interpret. > - The request is confirmed twice: they type their name, then tap a link sent to the email address on their file. > - After confirming there is a 48 hour cooling-off window with a big Cancel button. > - Payment and invoice records are kept because tax law requires it, with the personal details stripped out of them. > - You see every request on one screen in your dashboard, with where it stands and how many days you have left to respond. Sooner or later a client asks you to delete their data. Under GDPR they are entitled to, and in most booking tools that request lands as an email you now have to act on by hand: dig out their records, work out what you are actually allowed to remove, and remember to reply before the legal clock runs out. We built this differently. In Bookatu the whole thing runs as a proper lifecycle, and this post walks through it exactly as it happens, because if you run a salon in Europe you should know precisely what your software does in your name. ## It starts in their account, not your inbox Every client with a booking history at your salon has their own account on your booking page. Alongside their appointments and gift cards sits a Privacy section with two entries: Download my data and Delete my data. The download is instant and self-explanatory. The deletion is a bigger deal, so it starts with an explanation instead of a button. Before anything is armed, the screen says in plain words what will be erased: their profile, visit history, photos, forms, messages and reviews. It also says what will not be erased and why, so nobody discovers the tax-law part after the fact. Then comes the first check. To submit the request, the client types their own name, exactly as it appears on their account. A typo does not pass. That is a small hurdle for someone who means it, and that is the point: it filters out the idle tap without slowing down a real decision. ![A client's account page on a salon booking site, scrolling to the Privacy section and starting a deletion request with a typed-name confirmation](https://bookatu.com/blog/gdpr/request-deletion-poster.jpg) *01 · The request starts in the client's own account: a plain explanation first, then their name typed out to confirm they mean it.* ## The email double-check Submitting the form deletes nothing. Bookatu emails the address on the client's file with a confirmation link, and the request only moves forward once that link is tapped. This is the identity check: whoever asked also has to hold the inbox. If the link is never tapped, the request quietly expires after 48 hours and the account stays exactly as it was. Tapping the link opens a page that states, one more time, what is about to happen. Two buttons: confirm the deletion, or cancel the request on the spot. ![The emailed confirmation page for a data deletion request, offering a final yes or a cancel button before the cooling-off period begins](https://bookatu.com/blog/gdpr/confirm-cooling-off-poster.jpg) *02 · The emailed link opens a final yes-or-no page. Nothing has been deleted yet, and cancelling here ends the request.* ## 48 hours to change their mind Even after the email is confirmed, nothing runs for another 48 hours. The client's account shows the exact date the erasure will happen and a large Cancel button that works until that moment. People do change their minds. A regular who asked for deletion in a moment of frustration can undo it a day later with one tap, and nothing is lost, because nothing had been removed yet. When the window ends, Bookatu checks the account once more before running. If something changed in the meantime, say the client booked a fresh appointment during the cooling-off, the request does not run blindly. It moves to your queue instead, with the reason stated. ## The whole lifecycle at a glance 1. **They ask.** From the Privacy section of their own account, typing their name to confirm they mean it. 2. **They confirm by email.** A link goes to the address on their file. Nothing happens until it is tapped, and an untapped link expires after 48 hours. 3. **They can change their mind.** A 48 hour cooling-off window with a Cancel button, and the exact run date shown in their account. 4. **The erasure runs.** The account is checked again, personal data is removed, and financial records are kept with the personal details stripped. 5. **Everyone gets a record.** The client receives a confirmation email, and the completed request stays in your dashboard with its dates. ## What is erased, and what stays When the request completes, the client's profile and contact details are permanently deleted, along with their visit history, photos, form responses, messages and reviews. Past appointments stop being about a person and become anonymous entries, so your reports still add up but no longer say who sat in the chair. > **The legal bit** > > Invoices and payment records are not deleted, because tax law in most countries requires businesses to keep financial documents for a set period, usually around seven years. GDPR's right to erasure explicitly makes room for legal obligations like this. So Bookatu keeps the financial paperwork but strips the personal details from it: the invoice survives as a business record, and the person it pointed to is gone. Where a request cannot be met in full, the record says so rather than pretending otherwise. ## What you see on your side Every request appears on the Privacy and security screen of your dashboard from the moment it is raised. You can see where each one stands: waiting for the email confirmation, in its cooling-off window, held for your review, completed, cancelled or expired. Each active request also carries a quiet countdown, because GDPR expects a response within a month and the screen keeps you honest about it. Most requests never need you at all. The ones that do are held with the reason in plain words: the client still has an upcoming appointment, still owes money, or still has an active saved-card agreement with you. Once that is settled, you complete the request yourself. Before anything runs you see a preview of exactly what will be deleted and what will be kept with the personal details removed, and then you type the client's name to confirm. The same ritual the client went through, on your side of the counter. ![The Privacy and security screen in the salon dashboard, where deletion requests are listed with their status and a response countdown](https://bookatu.com/blog/gdpr/org-queue-poster.jpg) *03 · The owner's side: every request on the Privacy and security screen, with its status and a countdown for the legal response window.* > A deletion request is not an accusation. It is a client exercising a right, and good software makes that unremarkable. If you want the full picture of what Bookatu handles under GDPR, including the instant data download and the export of your own business, we wrote a companion piece for owners, GDPR without the panic, and the page at bookatu.com/gdpr walks through the same flows with the actual screens. The short version is simple: when a client asks to be forgotten, your software should already know what to do.