The value of data over time

The value of data changes over time. At the time of creation, data has a value high value as it records the interaction of a transaction between customer and provider. The value of data changes depending on how an organizations uses the data – analytics, AI, reporting, analyses, etc. The value of data is also unique to each organization.

Depending on the type of data, global regulations may require data to be kept for a specific period of time after which it must be deleted and/or destroyed. In some cases, personal identifiable information (PII) data must be deleted upon request (e.g. GDPR, DPDPA, PIPL, etc.) for to protect the privacy of consumers.

Many organizations will also destroy data after complying with specific regulatory data retention requirements to avoid exposure to potential liabilities and/or litigation. Many of these laws and regulations are related to financial information and were conceived in the US (for example, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act [SOX] and regulations as defined by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority [FINRA]), and has spread to varying degrees around the world (for example, the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act [DORA]).

On the other hand, there are laws such as the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in which the Privacy Rules extends the protection of certain Protected health information (PHI) for a specific duration, typically 50 years after the person’s death. 

Oil and gas companies are required to keep certain records between 10 and 25 years. 

In other cases, organizations may wish to keep data for extended periods of time for archiving and backup purposes. Archived data can often be valuable for regressive analyses. Backup data, for example, those organizations that use “incremental forever” schema, may require data from extended periods of time to recover from disasters.

Finally, some organizations may simply want to preserve historical or memorable data (such as formation documents, photos, etc.) for keepsake purposes.

Neuralytix is a leader in technologies both existing and emerging that retain data for very long periods of time (10+ years). We provide our clients with the opportunities and challenges facing these technologies, the viability, applicability, and sustainability of the options available.