Data lifecycle

Last updated: 2026-09-03. This page describes how data moves through Layers from collection to deletion. It covers your store’s data and your shoppers’ data, and it reflects current operating practice. For the legal terms, see the Terms of Use and Privacy Statement. For what the AI features do with this data, see AI & your data.

What is collected

Category	What it contains	Where it comes from
Catalog	Products, variants, collections, inventory, pricing, metafields, images, and store content such as pages and articles	Mirrored from Shopify through Catalog Sync webhooks and scheduled bulk exports
Configuration	Merchandising rules, sort orders, synonyms, redirects, blocks, search settings, and dashboard user accounts	Created by your team in the Layers dashboard or through the API
Shopper events	Collection views, product views, clicks, impressions, add to carts, searches, and block views, each tied to a session identifier and, for signed-in shoppers, a Shopify customer ID	Captured by the Storefront Pixel when analytics processing is allowed for the shopper
Request logs	Search, browse, and block requests made by your storefront, including the query, filters, and the results returned	Recorded by the Layers API as it serves storefront traffic
Purchases	Order lines with the attribution identifiers needed to connect a purchase to an earlier search or browse session	Shopify order webhooks
Embeddings	Vector representations of catalog content and of search queries	Generated by Layers from your catalog and from incoming queries
Aggregated analytics	Click-through, conversion, and popularity metrics per product, collection, search term, and block	Computed by Layers from shopper events and request logs
Operational logs	Application logs, error reports, and performance traces used to run and troubleshoot the service	Generated by Layers infrastructure

Layers does not store shopper IP addresses. Location on events is resolved at the edge to country, region, and city and the address itself is discarded.

Retention while your store is active

Category	Retention	Notes
Catalog	Kept in sync with Shopify for as long as the app is installed	When a product is deleted or unpublished in Shopify, the next sync removes it from Layers
Configuration	Kept for as long as the app is installed	Rules and sort orders you delete are removed from the active configuration immediately and purged from storage on a rolling basis
Shopper events	60 days	Raw events older than the window are deleted on a rolling schedule
Request logs	60 days	Same window as shopper events
Purchases	60 days	Same window as shopper events
Embeddings	Lifetime of the catalog item they describe	Regenerated when the product changes and deleted when the product is removed from Layers
Aggregated analytics	Kept for as long as the app is installed	Derived metrics remain after the underlying raw events have expired
Operational logs	14 days for application logs; error reports and performance traces follow the retention of the monitoring vendors listed on the sub-processors page	Operational logs contain request metadata and may contain search queries, but do not contain shopper identifiers beyond the session identifier

Retention windows are applied per store and are not extended by request. If your compliance program needs a shorter window for shopper events, contact support@uselayers.com.

After you uninstall

Uninstalling the Layers app starts a 30-day grace period. During this period your data is retained but sync activity stops, so you can reinstall and pick up where you left off. The process is documented in full under App uninstallation and data retention. At the end of the grace period:

Your store record and all associated data are permanently deleted from Layers’ primary databases. This includes the catalog mirror, configuration, embeddings, aggregated analytics, and any shopper events or request logs that have not already expired.
Per-store analytics storage is decommissioned.
Access tokens issued to your storefront and dashboard users stop working.

Deletion from primary storage is not reversible. If you need an export of your configuration before the grace period ends, contact support@uselayers.com.

Backups

Layers takes automated backups of its primary databases for disaster recovery. Backups are encrypted at rest and are only restored to recover the service after an infrastructure failure. They are not used to serve traffic or to restore an individual store’s data after the grace period has ended.

Backup rotation window: 30 days. A backup taken on the day your data is deleted from primary storage is itself deleted no later than 30 days afterwards.
Combined timeline: your data is fully gone from Layers systems no later than 60 days after uninstall (30-day grace period plus the 30-day backup rotation window).
Shopper events and request logs live in per-store analytics storage that is decommissioned at the end of the grace period and is not included in long-lived backups.

Data subject requests

Layers processes Shopify’s mandatory privacy webhooks automatically:

Customer data request: when a shopper asks you for their data through Shopify, Layers compiles the events tied to that customer ID and makes them available to you.
Customer redact: when Shopify sends a redaction request for a customer, Layers removes events tied to that customer ID from active storage.
Shop redact: when Shopify sends a shop redaction request after uninstall, Layers queues the store for deletion on the same schedule as the grace period above.

If a shopper contacts you directly rather than through Shopify, email support@uselayers.com with the Shopify customer ID and Layers will handle the request within the timeframes required by applicable law.

Next steps

AI & your data for how model providers fit into this picture.
Infrastructure & Sub-processors for where data is hosted.
Incident response overview for how Layers handles a security or availability incident.

Overview

Core Concepts

Merchandising

Search & Discovery

Catalog & Data

LayersQL

Shopify Integration

Legal

Data lifecycle

What is collected

Retention while your store is active

After you uninstall

Backups

Data subject requests

Next steps

​What is collected

​Retention while your store is active

​After you uninstall

​Backups

​Data subject requests

​Next steps

What is collected

Retention while your store is active

After you uninstall

Backups

Data subject requests

Next steps