Selecting fetch protected or non-fetch protected storage

Fetch protection helps prevent unwanted read access to your storage. A program can read from fetch protected storage only if its PSW key matches the storage key of the storage area or if its PSW key is 0. Non-fetch protected storage can be read by any program.

Note: Although you can obtain fetch-protected storage in key 8, the storage is only protected from accidental access because any program can switch into PSW key 8 and thereby obtain access to key-8 storage.