Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

NIST Special Publication 800-122 defines PII as "any information about an individual maintained by an agency, including (1) any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual‘s identity, such as name, social security number, date and place of birth, mother‘s maiden name, or biometric records; and (2) any other information that is linked or linkable to an individual, such as medical, educational, financial, and employment information." So, for example, a user's IP address as used in a communication exchange is classed as PII regardless of whether it may or may not on its own be able to uniquely identify a person.


    • Related Articles

    • Personally Disqualified Lawyer

      Term used to describe a lawyer in a situation where he or she must be personally disqualified from representing a client and/or to have access to or view a client’s confidential/personal information due to of a conflict of interest.
    • Personal Information

      The information about an individual that can directly or indirectly distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, associate or link an individual to private information, distinguish one person from another, or could be used to re-identify anonymous ...
    • Customer Information

      (US) In contrast to employee information, customer information includes data relating to the customers or clients of private sector organizations, patients within the healthcare sector and the general public within the context of public-sector ...
    • Information Security

      The protection of information for the purposes of preventing loss, unauthorized access and/or misuse. It is also the process of assessing threats and risks to information and the procedures and controls to preserve confidentiality, integrity and ...
    • Private Information

      (Legal-New York) The term used in a New York state law that represents personal information in combination with specific data elements.