1. A method for execution by a dispersed storage (DS) processing unit, the method comprises: receiving data for dispersed storage, wherein the data has an associated user identification (ID); obtaining a codec flag based on the associated user ID, wherein the codec flag indicates one or more codec types and a codec execution order, wherein the codec types include two or more of: a null data manipulation, one or more versions of a data integrity function, one or more versions of a compression function, and one or more versions of an encryption function; manipulating the data using the one or more codec types in the codec execution order to produce manipulated data; encoding the manipulated data using an error coding dispersal storage function to produce a plurality of encoded data slices; and outputting the plurality of encoded data slices and the codec flag to a plurality of DS storage units for storage therein.