While the designation of “personal information” varies slightly from one area to the next, many of the guiding principles are the same. United States According to the National Institute of Standards and Tech
In New Zealand, the Privacy Act defines “personal information” as any piece of information that relates to a living, identifiable human being, including names, contact details, financial health, and purchase records. In Canada, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA...
Documentation must be kept of the user opting in to data storage, and participants have the right to delete personal data upon request. These new regulations are designed to give individuals greater control over their identifying information. To be compliant, companies need to know precisely where ...
numbers are sensitive personal data, but personal information can also include birthdates, addresses, phone numbers, location, and family information, among other things. bits of personal information, alone or in combination, can be used as personal identifiers to distinguish a particular individual....
Even in today’s world of frequent data breaches, consumers are still forced to give out their personal information on a regular basis in order to use the products and services that they need. Because of this, it seems like an impossible task to try and protect your PII from getting into...
PHI is useful to patients and health professionals; it is also valuable to clinical and scientific researchers when anonymized. However, for hackers, PHI offers a wealth of personal consumer information that, when stolen, can be sold elsewhere or even heldhostage through ransomwareuntil the victimize...
Indirect identifiers are not unique. They include more general personal details like race and place of birth. While a single indirect identifier can't identify a person, a combination can. For example,87% of US citizenscould be identified based on nothing more than their gender, ZIP code and...
How to Protect Your Personally Identifiable Information While it’s difficult to remove all traces of your PII from the internet completely, there are several steps you can take to reduce the amount of personal information available online and minimize the risk of your PII being stolen or misuse...
, as they could be lost or stolen. To further enhance security, use separate passwords for each online account, and protect all electronic devices with password protection. Finally, when discarding computers, ensure the hard drives are reformatted to remove any traces of personal i...
When these collections of data are breached or leaked, people may become victims of identity theft or other attacks. In addition, the collection of PII sometimes undermines privacy as people lose control and visibility of what happens to their personal information. For these reasons, it is ...