This is the question we have been asked most, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a reassuring one.
Much of it should not still have been there.
Why we collected it
Identity details are required to place you on a trip. Authorities require identity-document details for everyone working aboard, and payment and bank details are needed to pay you. Collecting them was necessary at the time.
Why we still held it
This is the part that is harder to defend. We had no retention schedule and no automated deletion. Once the reason for holding your details had passed, nothing removed them, because nothing had been built to. Records stayed in the database long after the last season you worked, and dormant accounts stayed open with no mechanism to close them.
That is why this incident reached people who last worked with us years ago. It is our failing, not a consequence of the attack itself. A shorter retention period would have meant fewer people affected.
If you were originally a Yacht Week skipper
When Quarterdeck was set up to manage the people working the trips, existing Yacht Week skipper accounts were moved across to it. If you skippered for Yacht Week years ago and are surprised to hear from Quarterdeck at all, that is why — your record came with that move.
What is changing
The most important change is already live, and it puts the decision in your hands rather than ours: you can now delete your account and the data we are not required to keep yourself, from your profile page, and it takes effect immediately. See How do I close my account and delete my data?
Behind that, we have built automated retention rules that will clear personal data on a set schedule for each category, rather than at anyone's discretion. The retention periods are going through final sign-off before those rules are switched on — but you do not need to wait for them, because the deletion above is yours to use today.
What has to be kept, and why it differs from a guest record
More is retained for people who have worked with us than for guests, and we would rather explain that than let it look arbitrary. Records connected to work and payment carry their own legal retention periods — tax and payroll records, and crew lists submitted to authorities. Those are kept for as long as the law requires, and nothing beyond them.