Which term describes the person/role within the organization who usually manages the data on a day-to-day basis on behalf of the data owner/controller?

• A. Data Custodian
• B. Custodian
• C. Data Owner/Controller
• D. Data Classification

Answer: (A)

Role separation in data governance is about who makes policy and who handles day-to-day data management. The person who usually manages the data day-to-day on behalf of the data owner or controller is the data custodian. They are responsible for implementing and maintaining security controls, ensuring data integrity, managing storage and backups, provisioning access, and applying the owner’s policies in everyday operations. The data owner or controller retains accountability and decides who may access the data and for what purposes, but does not perform all routine handling. In practice, someone like a database administrator or IT administrator often fills the data custodian role, acting under the owner’s direction. The other terms don’t fit because data classification is about labeling data by sensitivity, and simply “custodian” without specifying data can be ambiguous, while the data owner/controller denotes policy authority, not the everyday management of data.