Data Is a Toxic Asset

Bruce Schneier · 4 Mar 2016

Bruce Schneier did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Storage became so cheap that companies keep everything forever, because until recently there was no downside to keeping it.

Their wordsAnd because the cost of saving all this data is so cheap, there’s no reason not to save as much as possible, and save it all forever.
Our reading
Stored personal data is a toxic asset: it is a liability that keeps growing for as long as it is kept.

Their wordsWhat all these data breaches are teaching us is that data is a toxic asset and saving it is dangerous.

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