Direct and indirect sources of data

Direct and indirect sources of data

1. Direct data capture is the collection of data for a particular purpose (e.g. barcodes being read at a supermarket so that the product can be identified or account details being read directly from the chip embedded in the credit card.)

2. Indirect data capture is the collection of data as a by-product from data collected for another purpose (e.g. using data collected from reading barcodes at a supermarket till to work out the stock levels or using data collected from reading barcodes to see whether an item is selling well.)