> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.refmatter.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Retention and takedown

> What we store, for how long, and how a rights holder gets content removed.

## What we store

| Data                                                         | Retention                                               |
| ------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| Source observations (title, description, counts as observed) | Life of the reference                                   |
| Poster frame                                                 | Life of the reference                                   |
| Raw capture of the source response                           | 30 days                                                 |
| Verified media bytes                                         | While a media hold is active (default 30 days, max 365) |
| Workspace annotations                                        | Life of the reference                                   |
| Audit events                                                 | Retained for accountability                             |

Bytes that no workspace holds any more are deleted by the retention job; nothing is kept "just in case".

## Access boundaries

References are visible only inside their workspace. Download URLs are presigned, short-lived, and scoped to one object. Refmatter never uses accounts, cookies, or client emulation to acquire content, and acquires only what a source serves publicly.

## Takedown

Rights holders and platforms can request removal of a source object. For a valid, sufficiently specific request we acknowledge it with a ticket id and act within 24 hours: every hold on the identified media is released, the bytes are detached and scheduled for verified deletion, and re-acquisition of that canonical URL is blocked until the request is resolved. Affected workspaces see the normal `mediaAvailability: "expired"` on their references; observed metadata is removed on request while the audit trail of the takedown is kept.

Send requests to [ilya@nim.video](mailto:ilya@nim.video?subject=Refmatter%20takedown) with the source URL and your relationship to the content.