CompTIA Data+ (DA0-002)Data Governance, Quality and ControlsHard
A company assigns one employee to make business decisions about how customer data should be classified, who is authorized to access it, and how long it must be retained. A separate IT employee is responsible for implementing the backups, encryption, and storage infrastructure that protect that same data. Which role is accountable for the classification and access decisions?
- AData Custodian
- BData Owner
- CData Steward
- DSystem Administrator
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Data Owner
The Data Owner is the accountable business role that makes decisions about classification, access authorization, and retention for a dataset. The Data Custodian executes the technical implementation (backups, encryption, storage) based on the owner's decisions, but does not set the classification or access policy itself.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. The Data Custodian carries out technical safeguards but does not decide classification or access policy.
- C. The Data Steward focuses on defining and enforcing data quality rules, a distinct responsibility from ownership decisions.
- D. A System Administrator manages IT systems generally and does not hold business accountability for the data.
Data Owner vs. Data Custodian
The Data Owner is the accountable business role deciding classification, access, and retention; the Data Custodian implements the technical controls (storage, backup, encryption) that enforce those decisions.
- Owner = business accountability and decision-making authority
- Custodian = technical implementation of security/storage controls
- Steward = day-to-day data quality rule definition and enforcement
Memory trick: Owner holds the KEY 🔑 to decisions; Custodian holds the TOOLBOX 🛠️ to implement them