This article appeared in Cybersecurity Law & Strategy, an ALM publication for privacy and security professionals, Chief Information Security Officers, Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Corporate Counsel, Internet and Tech Practitioners, In-House Counsel. Visit the website to learn more.
Like a good diet and regular exercise for the body, data minimization and routine, defensible purging of outmoded documents are essential to maintaining healthy organizational information hygiene. Data has a useful life. For some vital corporate records, that useful life could be nearly infinite. But for the vast majority of data, there is a point at which it no longer has business value. As data ages, the likelihood of it ever being accessed again decreases exponentially. Eventually, almost all of it becomes redundant, obsolete, or trivial (ROT).
