The risks of data retention – Why the data you hold onto matters

It borders on trite to suggest that we live in an age ruled by data, however, that's entirely the outcome of the data-driven way in which we all operate. We are incrementally improving our ability to store it cheaply, transfer it quickly and analyse it comprehensively. Big Data has become the way to do business and the prevailing mindset is that organisations that aren't on board will be left behind.

Data analytics is not particularly new; regression analyses were being performed early in the 19^th century and the phrase "machine learning" was coined in 1959. What is new, however, is the extent to which the global population is now aware of the ways we can use data and the way those processes are being marketed and sold. Further, more and more of our daily lives can now be quantified in databases. Our correspondence is increasingly digital (and searchable), our consumer choices easily tabulated, and our movements are all tracked (at least by default).