Data degradation

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Data degradation is the gradual corruption of computer data due to an accumulation of non-critical failures in a data storage device. It is also referred to as data decay, data rot or bit rot.^[1] This results in a decline in data quality over time, even when the data is not being utilized. The concept of data degradation involves progressively minimizing data in interconnected processes, where data is used for multiple purposes at different levels of detail. At specific points in the process chain, data is irreversibly reduced to a level that remains sufficient for the successful completion of the following steps^[2]