Reputational Damage
Any data you store might be leaked by an information security attack. As it is your responsibility to protect such data, this represents potential liability, compliance costs and reputational damage.Loss of Proprietary Knowledge
When data isn't used there is a tendency for people to forget its content, purpose or even its existence. There is a further tendency for such data to go unmanaged and be more vulnerable to security risks such as unauthorized access that may leak trade secrets and other proprietary knowledge.Future Compliance
The cost of compliance to future data related laws, regulations, rules and governance standards. Such requirements can be significant challenges when an organization has collected a large number of mysterious data repositories.Legacy Costs
In many cases, data loses most of its potential value in less than a year but remains for decades consuming resources. Cleaning up this data can be a significant cost and its presence and be a drag on operational efficiency.Anti-Information
Collecting copious amounts of dark data can actually get in the way of efforts to leverage data for business purposes. Dark data is essentially a type of anti-information that serves no purpose but makes it more difficult to find valuable information. Imagine the task of conducting a data asset inventory in the context of thousands of aging and poorly documented dark data repositories.Environment
At the macro level, dark data consumes significant data center capacity on a global basis and represents a wasteful practice.| Overview: Dark Data | ||
Type | ||
Definition | Data that an organization has collected but hasn't used. | |
Related Concepts | ||
