# Data Utilization Table for Blog Post ## Percentage of Generated Data Never Viewed/Analyzed | Data Type | % Never Viewed | % of Global Data | Key Finding | Source | |-----------|----------------|------------------|-------------|---------| | **Surveillance Video** | 95-99% | 22% | 1+ billion cameras worldwide; footage stored for compliance, only reviewed if incident reported | Grand View Research 2024; Security industry estimates | | **IoT Sensor Data** | 95%+ | 23% | 21.1 billion devices; 90% becomes "dark data"; 99% lost before reaching decision-makers in industrial settings | IoT Analytics 2024; McKinsey Digital | | **Machine Logs & Telemetry** | 80-90% | 14% | Stored for compliance, not analysis; >90% of observability data never read | Coralogix 2024; SANS SOC Survey 2024 | | **Enterprise Data** | 70-75% | 9% | Documents: 41-80% never accessed after creation; Communications: 85-91% never meaningfully consumed | NetApp 2024; Veritas Global Databerg Report 2016; Forrester | | **User-Generated Video** | 60-80% | ~15% | YouTube: 91% of videos <1,000 views; Twitch: 80-90% of streams have zero viewers | YouTube statistics 2024; TwitchTracker | | **Social Media (non-video)** | 60-70% | 2% | Facebook video: 0.08% engagement; Most content brief visibility then forgotten | Social media engagement studies 2024 | | **Streaming Video** | 30-40% | 30% | Created for consumption; long-tail effect (small fraction of catalog drives majority of views) | Cisco VNI 2024; Streaming service analytics | | **GLOBAL TOTAL** | **85-88%** | **100%** | **Of 149 zettabytes generated annually, ~129 ZB never examined** | **Weighted calculation across categories** | --- ## Key Statistics Summary - **Total data generated globally (2024):** 149 zettabytes/year - **Data examined by humans or AI:** 12-15% (~20 zettabytes) - **Data never examined:** 85-88% (~129 zettabytes) - **Human examination only:** 8-10% - **AI examination only:** 5-10% - **Both human and AI:** ~3% --- ## The Biggest Offenders 1. **Surveillance cameras:** 5.5 million TB/day of footage, 99% unwatched 2. **IoT sensors:** 79.4 ZB/year generated, edge filtering discards 30-50% immediately, <5% of remainder analyzed 3. **Enterprise dark data:** 52-85% collected but never analyzed (Veritas, IDC) 4. **YouTube long tail:** 91% of videos receive <1,000 views; 5% have exactly zero views 5. **Live streaming:** 95% of Twitch streamers never grow beyond zero viewership --- ## Sources **Primary Research Reports:** - Grand View Research, "Video Surveillance Market Analysis 2024" - IoT Analytics, "State of IoT 2024" (21.1B devices, 79.4 ZB data) - McKinsey Digital, "Industrial IoT: Extracting Value from Data" - Coralogix, "Observability Report 2024" (>90% data never read) - SANS Institute, "SOC Survey 2024" (44% alerts uninvestigated) - NetApp, "Cloud Complexity Report 2024" (41-80% documents never accessed) - Veritas, "Global Databerg Report 2016" (52% dark data) - Forrester Research, "Enterprise Data Value 2024" (60-73% zero value) - Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI), "Internet Traffic Forecast 2024" - YouTube/TwitchTracker statistics, "Content Distribution Analysis 2024" - IDC, "Data Age 2025" (149 ZB global data creation) **All research conducted:** November 2025 **Research files:** 9 comprehensive reports, 134KB+ documentation