What My Federal Grants Compliance Days Taught Me About Data Minimization

In my federal grants compliance days, we had a rule nobody questioned: you collect what the requirements ask for, and nothing extra.

Every field on every form had to be justified. Eligibility checks, reporting, documentation. If a data point didn't serve a requirement, it didn't get collected. Not because we were minimalists. Because every extra field was extra risk, extra storage, extra audit surface.

AI projects need the same discipline.

Before you feed data into a model, define the purpose in one sentence. Then collect only what serves that sentence. "We might need it later" is not a purpose. It's a wish, and wishes make terrible data strategies.

The grants world taught me that restraint is a compliance strategy. The AI world is learning the same lesson now.

I explain frameworks; I don't give legal counsel.