Glossary term
Personal Data
Subject: Technology, Cyber and Data, Data Protection and Privacy
Also known as: Personal information, Personally identifiable information (PII)
Personal data is any information about a living person who is named or could be picked out, whether through an obvious detail like a name or an indirect one such as an account number, location history or online identifier.
Explanation
The test is whether the person can be singled out, by the organisation or by someone else with reasonable effort. A name and address clearly qualify. So can a device ID, a vehicle number or a set of details that are harmless alone but unique together. Opinions about a person, such as an appraisal, count as well. Fully anonymised data falls outside the definition, but pseudonymised data stays inside it because a key can reverse it. Some categories, such as health, biometrics and religion, get stronger protection as sensitive data. US usage often says personally identifiable information, a narrower, list-based idea. Whether something is personal data decides if privacy law applies at all. Classifying a dataset as personal data switches on every other privacy duty.
Example
A taxi app stores trip records without rider names, only a rider code, pick-up and drop-off points and times. An analyst argues the data is anonymous. The privacy officer disagrees: a regular home-to-office journey can identify the rider, and the app holds the code that links back to the account, so the records are personal data.
Not to be confused with
- Personally identifiable information (PII)
- A US-style term, often defined by a fixed list of identifiers. Personal data is broader and looks at whether identification is possible.