Technology for governance of data retention and transfer

A system for storing data in a computer readable storage device comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a computer readable storage medium connected to the processor, wherein the computer readable storage medium has stored thereon a program for controlling the processor, and wherein the processor is operative with the program to execute the program for:
• providing a computer readable policy table configured to define respective retention period policies for respective items of the data according to geolocation origins of the respective items of the data;
• receiving first data from a first computer system via a network and storing the first data by a computer system hosting a first computer readable storage device;
• generating a first data entry in an audit table by an information lifecycle governance (“ILG”) process executing on the host computer system including generating a timestamp indicating when the first data was received and the geolocation of the first computer system from which the first data is received;
• assigning a retention period for the first data by the ILG process according to a retention period indicated in the policy table for the geolocation origin in the first data entry;
• determining a current age of the first data based on the timestamp;
• and
• deleting, by the ILG process, the first data from the first computer readable storage device responsive to the current age of the first data exceeding the applicable retention period assigned to the first data.

A computer program product for storing data in a computer readable storage device, including a computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon for execution by a computer system, wherein the instructions, when executed by the computer system, cause the computer system to implement a method comprising:

• providing a computer readable policy table configured to define respective retention period policies for respective items of the data according to geolocation origins of the respective items of the data;
• receiving first data from a first computer system via a network and storing the first data by a computer system hosting a first computer readable storage device;
• generating a first data entry in an audit table by an information lifecycle governance (“ILG”) process including generating a timestamp indicating when the first data was received and the geolocation of the first computer system from which the first data is received;
• assigning a retention period for the first data by the ILG process according to a retention period indicated in the policy table for the geolocation origin in the first data entry;
• determining a current age of the first data based on the timestamp of the first data entry;
• and
• deleting, by the ILG process, the first data from the first computer readable storage device, responsive to the current age of the first data exceeding the applicable retention period assigned to the first data.