What is the difference between contact data and interaction data?

The distinction is useful when deciding what should be stored, for how long, and where.

Contact data

Name, role, phone number, address. Relatively static, low volume, and the information that must be correct for anything to work. Errors here are immediately noticeable.

Collaboration data

Emails, conversations, clicks, purchases. High volume, growing rapidly, with the value lying in the pattern rather than in each individual event.

Why it matters

Contact data should be maintained and corrected. Interaction data should be collected and eventually cleaned up. If they are treated the same, you will end up with either a register that no one trusts or a database that grows uncontrollably.

Privacy considerations also differ

Both are personal data, but their retention requirements differ. Set a separate retention period for interaction data—it usually accounts for most of the volume.