What is personally identifiable information (PII)
Personal data, also known as personal information or personally identifiable information (PII), is any information related to an identifiable person.
The abbreviation PII is widely accepted in the United States, but the phrase it abbreviates has four common variants based on personal or personally, and identifiable or identifying. Not all are equivalent, and for legal purposes the effective definitions vary depending on the jurisdiction and the purposes for which the term is being used. Under European and other data protection regimes, which center primarily on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the term “personal data” is significantly broader, and determines the scope of the regulatory regime.
Examples of PII are the following,
- Full name
- Social Security number
- Driver’s license number
- Bank account number
- Passport number
- Email address
- Address
