Kustutus

Kustutus is an Estonian term for the act of erasing, deleting, or removing information from records, files, or systems. The noun is derived from the verb kustutama, meaning to erase or delete. In everyday use it covers both digital and physical contexts, but it is most common in information technology and data management, where it refers to removing data so that it is no longer accessible.

In computing, kustutus can refer to logical deletion, which marks data as deleted in a system but may leave traces in storage or backups; secure deletion seeks to prevent recovery by overwriting data, removing encryption keys, or destroying the storage medium. Methods include overwriting, cryptographic erasure (encrypt the data and delete the keys), degaussing for magnetic media, and physical destruction of hardware. The effectiveness depends on the storage medium, retention requirements, and existence of backups.

In legal and policy contexts, kustutus intersects with data protection and privacy laws. In Estonia and the EU, individuals have rights to request deletion of personal data where applicable, and organizations implement data retention schedules and kustutuste protseduurid (deletion procedures) to comply. Organizations must balance deletion with legal hold obligations and archival needs, often using anonymization or pseudonymization as alternatives when full removal is impractical.

Common challenges include ensuring deletion across distributed systems, cloud services, and backups; verifying successful deletion can require audit trails and validation. Kustutus, therefore, is a key concept in information security and privacy, contrasting with retention, archiving, and anonymization.