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Storage

Data storage refers to magnetic, optical or mechanical media that records and preserves digital information for ongoing or future operations (IBM). In the research data lifecycle we can make a distinction between "storage" for mutable data (still being worked on) and "archiving" (longer term or cold storage) for immutable data (after the research has been concluded).
When storing or archiving personal data the most important thing is to agree on the period of data retention to comply with the GDPR's principle of storage limitation.

Data retention vs. storage limitation

Data retention is the storing of information for a specified period.
A data-retention - or archive - policy is an organization's policy or protocol regarding the saving of data for regulatory or compliance purposes, or the disposal of it when no longer needed. The policy highlights how data or records need to be formatted and what storage devices or system to use, as well as the how long these need to be kept, which is usually based on a regulatory body's rules.
Article 5 of GDPR specifies its storage limitation principle specific to personal data: "Personal data shall be kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed."
The GDPR does not set specific time limits for different types of data but requires that controllers and processors set limits based on the purposes of the processing.

Last modified:03 October 2022 09.17 a.m.