Study says that 90 percent Indian IT workers hoard digital files and data

Ninety percent of IT decision makers (ITDMs) in Indian organisations admit they hoard data and are unwilling to share digital files, a new study revealed on Tuesday. The “Data Hoarders” study by the US information management company Veritas Technologies, showed that majority of respondents store data that could be potentially harmful to their organisations. These include unencrypted personal records, job applications to other companies, unencrypted company secrets and embarrassing employee correspondence. In India, the research was conducted among 400 professionals and ITDMs to look into how individuals manage data. “The research shows that 92 percent of the ITDMs in India feel that their company is a digital hoarder and if left unaddressed, this could lead to potential cost and productivity implications,” said Balaji Rao, Managing Director, Veritas Technologies, India. Almost half of the respondents (48 percent) would rather work weekends for three months than get rid of all of their digital files. Meanwhile in India, 39 percent would rather throw out all of their clothes than all of their digital files. The findings highlighted that ITDMs are hoarding their digital files and saving 55 per cent on average of all the data they create. Many office professionals (68 percent) admit that they would not trust a data hoarder to turn in a project on time, which is significantly more than office professionals globally (48 percent) and more than any other country surveyed. Employees struggle to determine if data has long-term importance or value. As a result, 49 percent of ITDMs have heard employees say they are afraid they will eventually need to refer to the data again, the study noted. This research was conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of Veritas Technologies across 13 countries and more than 10,000 office professionals and IT decision makers. IANS