# Who sees what in Performance

> Who can read each review, goal, feedback note and assistant draft, and how long Performance keeps them

Each Performance record has a fixed set of readers, listed below.

## Reviews

When a round opens, each review is stamped with a reviewer: the line manager, or an admin when no
line manager can review. The reviewer keeps it while it is open and, once finished, while they still
manage the person. After that, unless they are an admin, they keep only the manager review they
wrote. Owners count as admins.

| Review | Who reads it |
|---|---|
| Self | The person; the reviewer and admins once submitted |
| Peer | The writer; the reviewer, with the writer's name. Admins see only that a peer responded. The person never sees peer answers |
| Manager | The reviewer; admins once finished; the person once it is shared |
| Upward | After collection ends, the manager reviewed, their reviewer and admins see rating counts and unnamed comments where at least the cycle's minimum answered (3 or more). Nobody sees who wrote what |

A later reviewer of the person reads earlier self and manager reviews under **History**, not
earlier peer answers. Other managers see nothing unless they are admins.

## Sharing

The cycle's **When a review is finished** setting is **Shared with the person when finished**,
**The reviewer decides whether to share** (the default) or **Not shared with the person**. A
shared review is never unshared or edited, only corrected with dated notes.

## Goals, feedback and drafts

- **Goals**: the person, their line manager, the manager of any team they are in, and admins.
- **Anytime feedback**: the person, their line manager at sending, or both, per its audience;
  the manager only while still managing them. Admins see reported notes only.
- **Confidential authors**: hidden from readers. On a reported note, an admin who is not the
  person, their manager or the author can choose **Show author**; each reveal is recorded in the
  audit log.
- **Assistant drafts**: the author only. The audit log notes that a draft was saved, never its
  content; upward drafts leave none.

## Retention

1. Go to **Settings → Review settings**.
2. Pick **Delete reviews after**: 12 to 120 months, 24 by default.

Reviews go that many months after their round closes, feedback after it was sent, and goals after
they close. Cycles, rounds and forms stay. Deletion runs nightly and cannot be undone.

## Export and erasure

A person's own export holds their self reviews and drafts, assistant drafts, what they wrote
about others (upward only until collection closes), shared manager reviews about them, their
goals, feedback they wrote, and feedback about them they can see, without authors. An admin's
export of them leaves out drafts, materials, assistant drafts, answers about others and
feedback, except named notes they wrote. No export holds peer or upward answers about the person.

Erasure blanks text in place and keeps the rows: the person's own answers, every answer on reviews
about them, their goals and their feedback. Manager reviews they wrote about others stay. Upward
answers lose their author when collection closes, so erasure cannot find them.

## Worked example

Ewa, Tomasz's manager on Northlake's Platform team, reviews Tomasz for Q3 2026. Ewa reads Aleksandra's
peer answers under Aleksandra's name; Tomasz never sees them, and Marta, the admin,
sees only that Aleksandra responded. With the default sharing setting, Tomasz reads the review
once Ewa chooses **Finish and share**; it is deleted 24 months after the round closes.

> [!AGENT]
> List the inputs you can read for the manager review I'm writing for Tomasz in SquadBear, by label and date only.

## Related

- [Performance reviews](/docs/performance/overview/)
- [Anytime feedback](/docs/performance/anytime-feedback/)
- [Data protection and GDPR in SquadBear](/docs/admin/privacy/)