THE amount of digital data generated by Singaporeans will reach 1,258 petabytes (PB) this year, double the 631PB in 2006. One petabyte is 1.05 million gigabytes.
Most of this - 70 per cent - will be created by individuals, by uploading digital photos or sending e-mail, for instance. The rest will be generated by organisations which store information such as business records digitally.
Some sources of digital data are:
Content from the Internet, including e-mail, photos and videos, and social networking sites
Consumer-related activity, such as ATM transactions and SMSes
Digital images and videos, such as surveillance and digital-camera footage; info from bar-code readers; and medical imaging records, such as MRI scans
Mobile phone and land line records: telcos keep phone logs, which must be maintained for seven years
Data storage devices such as hard-disk drives, optical discs, tapes and memory cards.
TAN WEIZHEN