Question

A customer submits a valid erasure request, and the privacy team confirms the individual's personal data must be deleted from production systems. During execution, the data engineer notes that the same records also exist in encrypted backup tapes that are retained for 90 days on a rolling cycle for disaster recovery. Immediately overwriting the backups would break the recovery chain and violate the organization's business continuity obligations. What is the MOST appropriate way to handle the personal data residing on the backup media?

Accepted Answer

Delete the data from production, place the backup copies beyond further processing use, and allow them to be securely destroyed when the backup cycle expires

Answer

Restore each backup tape, delete the individual records, and re-create the backups to ensure immediate erasure across all copies

Answer

Deny the erasure request for the backup copies because disaster recovery constitutes a legitimate exemption from all deletion obligations

Answer

Retain the backups indefinitely but pseudonymize the individual's records so they can no longer be readily identified