incidis

Incidis is a term that appears in some discussions and speculative literature to denote incidental data generated during information processing and related activities. It has no formal standard definition in major encyclopedias, and its usage varies by author or context.

Etymology and origins of the term are uncertain. It is likely a neologism drawing on Latin roots associated with incidental occurrence, but there is no consensus on a precise derivation or established usage in scholarly sources.

Definition and scope

In its broader, informal sense, incidis refers to incidental data that accompanies primary data as a byproduct of processing, storage, transmission, or measurement. Examples include timestamp metadata, processing logs, cache-related signals, side channels, and ancillary sensor readings. The concept is intentionally wide to cover unintended byproducts that can convey information about the data or the environment in which it was produced.

Contexts and applications

In data governance and analytics, incidis can contribute to audit trails, reproducibility, and anomaly detection by providing auxiliary signals about workflows. In privacy and security contexts, incidental data can raise concerns about leakage of sensitive information and the potential for timing or side-channel analyses. Some researchers view incidis as a useful category for studying how non-primary data interacts with data pipelines, while others caution against overgeneralization without standard definitions.

Limitations

Because incidis is not standardized, definitions and boundaries vary, which can lead to ambiguity. Critics emphasize the need for clear separation between primary data and incidental data and call for careful consideration of privacy and data minimization implications.

See also

Incidental data, auxiliary data, data provenance, side-channel analysis, metadata, data minimization.