Data Retention
Data retention refers to the policies and practices for storing and managing data over time, specifying how long data should be kept, where it should be stored, and when it should be deleted or archived. It involves balancing operational needs, legal requirements, and privacy concerns to ensure data is available when needed but not retained longer than necessary. This concept is critical in data governance, compliance, and risk management across industries.
Developers should learn data retention to design systems that comply with regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, or CCPA, which mandate specific retention periods and deletion protocols. It helps in optimizing storage costs, reducing legal risks, and ensuring data privacy by implementing automated retention policies in databases, cloud storage, or applications. Use cases include financial records, healthcare data, user logs, and e-commerce transactions where retention rules vary by data type and jurisdiction.