Google Analytics have a new “Data Retention” setting.
An email I’ve just received from a customer includes a line from their advisor that says
"A couple of you have questioned the data retention period advice. Please be aware that you are allowed to set this however you wish, I was just offering my advice. You must make the final decision. As you make year on year comparisons and work in a seasonal market. You can justify up to 50 months of data retention in my opinion. Just make sure this is clearly stated in your privacy policy. "
and that seems reasonable to me, so I’m going to set the data retention period to 50 months on all Google Analytics accounts I have access to.
Let us know if you want it to be set differently!