UK could soon hit data storage breaking point

New research from Veritas Technologies has revealed that UK consumers face a tough choice between deleting their data or paying extra to keep it.

The firm conducted a study to learn more about consumers' data habits and found that 38 percent of the 2,000 respondents would not pay for extra data storage on top of what is available on their personal devices. This leaves them with the choice to save more of their data or sacrifice the performance of their devices.

When running out of storage on their personal devices, 82 percent said they would rather delete data than pay extra to keep it with the data types most likely to face deletion being films and TV shows (45%), text messages (45%), apps (41%) and videos (35%).

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Veritas also discovered that in some cases, consumers put more value on their work-related data than on their personal data with 33 percent willing to delete personal emails compared to 31 percent that said they would delete work emails.

Delete or buy more data

Only 22 percent of those surveyed said they would delete their photos over other data types suggesting photos hold the greatest sentimental value for UK consumers when it comes to data.

Surprisingly, over a quarter (27%) admitted to keeping all of their images out of fear of losing them. However, when it came to film and TV show content, 41 percent said they would delete the data stored on their devices instead of storing it.

Veritas' study also revealed that almost a fifth (18%) of consumers could be classified as data-hoarders who refuse to delete any of their data. Unfortunately, UK consumers are highly opposed to the idea of paying for storage with over a third (38%) refusing to purchase a monthly data storage subscription of any kind. Of those who said they would purchase a subscription to a data storage service, the highest they would pay for 1GB is £5.

Senior Director of Northern Europe at Veritas, Jasmit Sagoo explained that consumers have grown accustomed to data storage without limits, saying:

“Not all data is created equal, and consumers have strong views on what types of data matter most to them. The widespread availability of content distribution platforms, such as video streaming services and social channels, enables users to save content without limits or costs. As a result, consumers have become used to data storage being plentiful, accessible and cheap.”