Patent ID: 8560794

Claim:
A dispersed storage device for use within a dispersed storage network, comprising: an interface; and a processing module operable to: receive, via the interface, a data delete request to delete a data object stored throughout a set of dispersed storage units within a dispersed network memory of the dispersed storage network, the data object being segmented into data segments and each of the data segments being sliced into data slices in accordance with an error coding dispersal storage function, the error coding dispersal storage function indicating a pillar number range that corresponds to a number of the data slices generated for each of the data segments, each storage unit of the set of dispersed storage units storing the data slices of the data segments having like pillar numbers of the pillar number range; determine a deletion policy for the data object; and selectively generate and transmit, via the interface, a delete command to the set of dispersed storage units based on the deletion policy, the delete command causing the set of dispersed storage units to delete the data slices of the data object stored therein.