this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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Privacy
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Cassandra is a database designed to make data as available as possible at the cost of possible inconsistency
When a data is deleted from Cassandra it's replaced by a marker named 'tombstone'
However backups, deep backups, and copies made on purpose for governments may exist
Law and advertisers mandate some data not being deletable
You know why they "tombstone"? (By the way, they don't replace with a tombstone marker but instead add the marker.)
Because if you "accidentally" deleted something and then decided you wanted it back, you'd get really mad if they couldn't do that. If they immediately deleted it, you couldn't ever get it back
The copies and deep copies are for a similar reason: Some engineer accidentally deletes a bunch of data, it's really nice to have a backup so you don't lose everything.