With 144 countries now having data privacy and protection regulations in place as of January 2025, and ongoing moves to regulate artificial intelligence, regulatory compliance became the top reason for changing end-of-life data management practices. It was cited by 38% of organizations globally. Sustainability, including that driven by regulatory requirements, came a close second at 34%.
Furthermore, the survey said, only 21% of enterprise data is tagged and classified, making it difficult to tell how much of it is redundant, obsolete, or trivial, and thus ripe for removal. Many organizations retain too much data, with only 53% of respondents saying they destroy data once it is no longer needed for business purposes.
There is good news too. The survey found that 58% of enterprises surveyed have increased their investments in data privacy and protection in the past year, by an average 46%, noting that there was no single investment trigger: “For most, it’s the accumulation of new rules, new technologies, and mounting expectations around responsible data and hardware disposal.”
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