Organizations should routinely delete unnecessary information -- but they don't.
There is too much fear and uncertainty. As a result, they save everything even if it's ROT (redundant, obsolete and trivial). That's costly for business.
With SharePoint Server 2019, policies are enforced both on the server and in the client applications. This is done transparently; policy features that apply to a document are described in a policy statement that is associated with the document, and policy-aware applications prevent users from doing tasks that violate the document's policy.
You can associate a policy with a library, list, or content type in the following ways:
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Associate policy features with a Site Collection policy and then associate that policy with a content type or with a list or library. The top-level site of a site collection includes a Site Collection Policies gallery where administrators of the top-level site can create new policies. After creating a Site Collection policy, you can export it so that administrators of other site collections can import it into their Site Collection Policies galleries. This lets you standardize policies across your organization.
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When a Site Collection policy is associated with a content type and that content type is associated with a list or library, the owner of the list or library cannot modify the Site Collection policy in the list or library. This ensures that policies that are assigned to a content type are enforced at each level of the site hierarchy.
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Associate a set of policy features directly with a content type, and then add that content type to one or more lists or libraries. To ensure that a policy that is created by using this method will be used in the whole site collection, associate it with a content type in the Site Content Type gallery of the top-level site collection. Then every item of that content type in the site collection and every item of a content type that inherits from the original content type will have the policy. When you use this method of associating a policy with a content type, it is harder to reuse the policy in other site collections, because policies created by using this method cannot be exported.
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Retention The Retention policy feature lets you define
retention stages, with an action that happens at the end of each stage. For example, you could define a two-stage retention policy on all documents in a specific library that deletes all previous versions of the document one year after the document is created, and declares the document to be a record five years after the document is created.
The actions that can occur at the end of a stage include the following:
- Moving the item to the Recycle Bin
- Permanently deleting the item
- Transferring the item to another location
- Starting a workflow
- Skipping to the next stage
- Declaring the item to be a record
- Deleting all previous drafts of the item
- Deleting all previous versions of the item
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Auditing The Auditing policy feature logs events and operations that are performed on documents and list items. You can configure Auditing to log events such as the following:
- Editing a document or item
- Viewing a document or item
- Checking a document in or out
- Changing the permissions for a document or item
- Deleting a document or item
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Labeling The Labeling policy feature specifies a label to associate with a type of document or list item. Labels are searchable text areas that SharePoint Server 2013 generates based on properties and formatting that you specify. For example, in a law firm, a document related to a legal matter could include a label that contains the clients' names, the case number, and the attorney assigned to the matter. Labels are especially useful in printed versions of documents as a way to display document properties in printed copy. Along with using labels for documents, you can associate a label with a list item and include that label in views of the list.