Any data that can be used to identify a specific individual, either on its own (a full name, a Social Security number) or in combination with other information (a birthdate combined with a ZIP code).
Why it matters
Handling PII carries significant legal obligations under privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, including requirements around consent, storage, and a person's right to access or delete their own data — mishandling PII carries real legal and reputational risk.
In a sentence
"We minimize how much PII we collect on the lead form itself, since every additional field is both more friction and more compliance obligation."
Related terms
- Antonyms: Anonymized data, aggregated data (data that cannot be traced back to a specific individual).
- Often confused with: First-party data (PII is specifically data that identifies an individual; first-party data is a broader category describing who collected the data, which may or may not include PII).
- Synonyms: Personal data (the term more commonly used under GDPR specifically).