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What is Data 

Data

Data is any information that may be analyzed in order to develop a business strategy. Various forms of data are constantly being acquired as technology advances. With such a large amount of data available, new tactics are being developed, as well as concerns about privacy and new ethical requirements.

Data sources can be classified based on two factors:

the goal of data gathering and the type of data source.

 

Data can be classified into two types –
  • Primary Data 
  • Secondary Data

Primary Data

Primary data is considered first-hand information gathered by a surveyor, investigator, or another person. The major source of data collection for the relevant information is the sources from which such data is acquired.

Furthermore, data is only considered primary if it has never been subjected to any statistical treatment. Such information is frequently made public, and additional information is obtained from the disclosed source for various uses. The population of a country, for example, is an application of primary data collection.

Primary Data has the following characteristics –

    • Such data is being collected for the first time.
    • Primary Data is original and thereby more reliable than other types of data
    • This kind of data has not been used for any statistical analysis before
Secondary Data

Secondary data refers to information that has previously been collected, evaluated, published, and statistically treated. This type of information is derived from original data sources. However, surveyors, investigators, and others might collect this type of data in order to do statistical analysis and extract newer knowledge.


The address you enter in food delivery applications, for example, is a popular application for secondary data. Unless you've recently purchased a home, your address isn't new information.


In such circumstances, information about your new property's address will be deemed primary data. You can see the difference between main and secondary data sources in this example.

Secondary Data consists of the following features –
    • Secondary data is considered ‘second-hand information’.
    • Secondary data is not original.
    • This kind of data has gone through statistical analysis at least once.
    • Secondary data is not reliable.

An example of Secondary Data is information that is found on unapproved websites such as Wikipedia, etc. where any user at any given time can edit the data, as per his or her wish, provided on any page of this website.