Once you store an item in iCloud, the items can be retained forensically, even if you have deleted the item.
For most back-up and file sharing services, you can delete files either locally or directly on the cloud service (usually through a browser or application device). However, when you delete a file, it has not been removed from the cloud server. Instead, the service marks the file as deleted, but actually maintains the file. Just because the user can no longer view or restore the file does not necessarily mean that the file does not exist.
It is important to note that deleting files and accounts from the public cloud (social media sites) is never what it seems, and simply because they disappear does not mean they are permanently deleted.