The guide gives the stages in order, and questions often ask you to place a described activity in one of them. Learn the list.
The stages, in order
- Create, collect or extract — the data comes into existence, or is pulled out of somewhere it already was.
- Store — it is put somewhere it can be found again.
- Process — it is cleaned, sorted, combined or converted.
- Analyse — patterns are looked for in it.
- Access — people or systems read it.
- Preserve — it is kept usable as formats and discs age.
- Reuse — it is used again, often for something it was never collected for.
Free preview
This is the free notes preview
You're reading the free notes. Aimnova Pro unlocks the full study experience — and you can try it with your first topic free to keep:
- FlashcardsLock in vocabulary and key terms with spaced repetition.
- Practice questionsAnswer exam-style questions and get instant AI marking.
- Mock exams & past-paper vaultSit full mocks and see exactly how examiners award marks.
- Personalised study planA daily plan built around your exam date and weak areas.
Six of the seven stages are quiet. Reuse is the one that makes news, because data collected for one reason gets used for another, and the person it came from agreed to the first reason only.
| Collected for | Reused for | Why people object |
|---|---|---|
| Delivering a parcel | Mapping where you are home during the day | Nobody agreed to be tracked |
| Spotting fraud | Setting the price you are shown | The same data now costs you money |
| Improving a health app | Training a model sold to insurers | A different company entirely |
| Running a bus network | Policing who travelled together | A different purpose, and a serious one |
The rule this drives: This is why The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (European Union, in force since May 2018) requires a lawful basis for each purpose, not just for the data. The stage that needs governing is reuse.
Learn what examiners really want
See exactly what to write to score full marks. Our AI shows you model answers and the key phrases examiners look for.
Each stage has its own way of going wrong, and naming the stage is the quickest way to make an answer specific.
Failures by stage
Collect
Collecting more than is needed, because storage is cheap and someone might want it later.
Store
One breach exposes everything at once, because it is all in one place.
Process
Cleaning quietly drops the awkward records, and the result looks tidier than the truth.
Preserve
Nobody funds migration, so the archive survives as files nothing can open.
Reuse
The new purpose was never agreed to, and often was not imagined when the data was collected.
Real-world examples you can name
The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack — May 2021
A ransomware group reached the company's network through a single reused password on an old VPN account. The company shut the pipeline down for several days as a precaution, causing fuel shortages along the US east coast, and paid a ransom of which US authorities later recovered part.
Who it affected: Drivers and airports across the eastern United States.
How this is tested — you have to place an activity in the life cycle and then say what can go wrong at that point. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 — structured question
- Part a: identify the stage a described activity belongs to
- Part b: explain a risk at a named stage
Paper 2 — source-based question
- Q2: explain what a source says happens to data after collection
- Q4: synthesise sources on how an organization handles its data
The trap: answering about the whole cycle: If the question names a stage, stay in it. A general answer about data being risky earns the marks for none of the stages.
Identify two stages of the data life cycle.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Explain one risk that arises at the reuse stage of the data life cycle.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.