Data retention means protecting your data in a secure environment in the long term, in such a way that it remains usable, understandable and accessible. This means more than just making backup copies of your data. If you only backup your data, it can ....

• become unreadable with future software because the file format is not compatible.
• be altered when opening the file with new software, so that it is no longer reliable for research.
• be altered by someone, as there is no access control.
• become incomprehensible because no documentation or metadata have survived.