Business

Email Archiving: Saudi Compliance Requirements

CLOUD|November 27, 2025|3 min read|448 views

Some entities must preserve email for years. PDPL and NCA impose requirements. We explain: how to archive, how long to keep, and best tools.

What Is Email Archiving?

Email archiving is the process of preserving a complete copy of every email — sent and received — in a secure, organized, and searchable repository. It is not simply backup. Archiving stores messages in a tamper-proof format with full indexing for search and retrieval.

Difference between archiving and backup:

Feature	Archiving	Backup
Purpose	Compliance + legal reference	Disaster recovery
Modification	Not possible	Possible
Search	Instant and indexed	Requires full restore
Duration	Years (per regulation)	Weeks - months
Legal value	Accepted as evidence	Not guaranteed

Archiving Requirements in Saudi Arabia

Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL)

PDPL requires every entity processing personal data to maintain complete records of processing activities. Emails containing personal data fall within this scope.

Requirements:

Retain processing records for a minimum of 5 years
Ability to retrieve any record upon regulatory request
Encrypt archived data
Define archive access permissions

NCA Controls

The National Cybersecurity Authority requires security event logs to be retained for a minimum of 12 months. Emails related to security incidents or system administration fall under this requirement.

E-Commerce Law

Online stores must retain transaction records — including correspondence — for a minimum of 3 years.

Capital Market Authority (CMA)

Financial and listed companies must archive all correspondence for up to 10 years.

How to Build a Compliant Archiving System

1. Define Your Retention Policy

Before any technical setup, determine:

Retention period: Based on sector (5 years PDPL, 10 years financial)
Message types: All messages or specific categories
Access permissions: Who can search and retrieve
Deletion procedure: How messages are removed after the retention period

2. Choose the Technical Solution

Available options:

Server-level archiving — cPanel and Plesk offer basic archiving tools
Dedicated solutions — MailArchiva, ArcTitan, Barracuda
Cloud archiving — but ensure data stays in Saudi Arabia

3. Enable Automatic Archiving

Manual archiving is unacceptable for compliance. The system must:

Save every message automatically the moment it is sent or received
Prevent modification or deletion (WORM — Write Once Read Many)
Index content for rapid search

4. Secure the Archive

Encrypt archived data — AES-256 minimum
Separate archive from mail server — if email is breached, the archive remains protected
Back up the archive — the archive itself needs a backup copy
Access logs — track every search and retrieval operation

Cost of Archiving

Solution	Approximate Annual Cost	Notes
Built-in cPanel archiving	Free	Basic, insufficient for full compliance
Self-hosted solution	3,000 - 15,000 SAR	Requires separate server
Cloud service	5,000 - 25,000 SAR	Verify storage location

Compare with the cost of non-compliance: PDPL fines reach 5 million SAR. Losing a lawsuit due to missing records means unlimited cost.

Email Archiving and Server Location

A critical point: archiving email on a server outside Saudi Arabia creates a compliance problem even if the mail server itself is in Saudi. The archive contains a complete copy of every message — meaning all personal data.

CLOUD provides servers in Riyadh suitable for hosting your archiving system alongside your mail server. Data remains in Saudi Arabia from sending through archiving.