Context. It's what gives many words a precise meaning, what makes actions appropriate in one instance and not in another, and what makes data gathered for one purpose a privacy nightmare when situations change.
Data in context, or more precisely, data ripped out of its context, is the source of most of the data-driven anxiety customers and clients feel today, and a source of a great deal of the storage-based worry for CIOs in the retail, financial, and healthcare industries. Organizations that pay close attention to context can find themselves eliminating many of the problems.
Much of our trouble with data out of context comes from the nagging feeling that someday, someone is going to figure out that analysis based on data we don't have about our customers is the key to correctly making decisions about our business. The answer? Gather every scrap of data possible, and obsessively hold onto that data forever, just in case one of our bright people figures it out. Unfortunately, that data becomes an attractive nuisance, sending out a siren call to hackers while taking up ever more space in your storage infrastructure.
Customers, clients, and patients don't really mind giving us the information we need (and here's the critical part) if they know we're going to use it for the purpose they expect: If, in short, we keep the data connected to the context of our relationship. In their minds, they've provided something of value (their information) in exchange for something else of value (our goods or services). Trouble comes when we hold onto the information and try to use it outside the proper context. When that happens, we've broken a social contract, even though we're probably acting within the terms of service the customer signed when the whole dance began.
So what's a CIO to do? For starters, begin introducing the concept of data in context if it's not already part of the regular discussion at your organization. Resist the urge to hold onto information "just in case" or to gather more information than your needs require on the outside chance that you'll someday find it valuable. The results can be positive in several directions.
Regulatory compliance becomes easier, especially in the financial services and healthcare fields. Let's be blunt: You don't have to maintain the security of data you don't have. It also goes without saying that you don't have to store data you've never collected. Put your applications and your various departments on a data diet and you'll see results from both reduced compliance costs and reduced storage requirements filter down to the bottom line.
You may also see significant benefits from increased customer satisfaction when you make a point of not asking for information that isn't necessary. If you need to, point out to them that you're not asking as many questions as you could. Customers are smart. They'll get it. What you'll get is better financial results and fewer PR disasters from lost data. That's a winning situation that you don't need a pile of raw data to understand.