What is PII?

PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is any information that can be used to identify, contact, or distinguish one person from another. PII can consist of both sensitive or non-sensitive info like names, phone numbers, addresses and birthdates as well as bank account or credit card numbers.

Although data may be benign on its own, it can sometimes allow a person’s identity to be compromised when brought together with other information–including metadata gathered from third parties.

With new, smarter technologies collecting personal data has become a much larger issue for personal privacy purposes. This is why laws and regulations like the GDPR continue to emerge which are trying to protect this kind of information from being exploited inappropriately.

The storage and use of such data should always be in accord with all laws and regulations.