What Is Personal Identifiable Information?
Personal Identifiable Information (PII)
Corey Heinrich
March 20, 2016
Personal Identifiable Information Personally identifiable information (PII) is “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.” (McCalisster, Grance, & Scarfone, 2010) The risk is now greater than ever that consumers will have their personal data misappropriated. Recent Data Breaches demonstrate how vulnerable …show more content…
Consumers have more to fear than just a breach of their financial information. They have to be wary of companies that change privacy policies without notice, publish their personal email contacts without consent, and sell their personal information to advertisers for a profit. In fact, companies are continually finding new ways to leverage the customer data they control by analyzing customer buying trends to discover new insights, which they can sell for a profit. In addition, with the rise of the Internet of Things, the data available about consumer habits is set to increase dramatically. The data is collected through accessing a variety of online and offline consumer activities revealing personal information disclosed in connection with such activities. n22 These activities include: purchasing products online; browsing the Internet; filling out a form or survey to get a coupon; social media; subscribing to websites; or mobile …show more content…
Self-regulation is considered the “least intrusive and most efficient means” to use in such a rapidly evolving area as the Internet. This approach relies on notice and consent, whereby a company is required to provide notice to consumers of how it will collect and use their information, and consumers consent by using the goods or services the company provides. Furthermore, the notice-and-consent model for privacy that currently predominates in unregulated industries in the United States has been roundly criticized as a failure. Often taking the form of End User License Agreements (EULAs) or Terms and Conditions forms, these notices are prohibitively long and written in legalese that most consumers do not understand. The result is that no one reads the terms and conditions for a given product or
Corey Heinrich
March 20, 2016
Personal Identifiable Information Personally identifiable information (PII) is “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.” (McCalisster, Grance, & Scarfone, 2010) The risk is now greater than ever that consumers will have their personal data misappropriated. Recent Data Breaches demonstrate how vulnerable …show more content…
Consumers have more to fear than just a breach of their financial information. They have to be wary of companies that change privacy policies without notice, publish their personal email contacts without consent, and sell their personal information to advertisers for a profit. In fact, companies are continually finding new ways to leverage the customer data they control by analyzing customer buying trends to discover new insights, which they can sell for a profit. In addition, with the rise of the Internet of Things, the data available about consumer habits is set to increase dramatically. The data is collected through accessing a variety of online and offline consumer activities revealing personal information disclosed in connection with such activities. n22 These activities include: purchasing products online; browsing the Internet; filling out a form or survey to get a coupon; social media; subscribing to websites; or mobile …show more content…
Self-regulation is considered the “least intrusive and most efficient means” to use in such a rapidly evolving area as the Internet. This approach relies on notice and consent, whereby a company is required to provide notice to consumers of how it will collect and use their information, and consumers consent by using the goods or services the company provides. Furthermore, the notice-and-consent model for privacy that currently predominates in unregulated industries in the United States has been roundly criticized as a failure. Often taking the form of End User License Agreements (EULAs) or Terms and Conditions forms, these notices are prohibitively long and written in legalese that most consumers do not understand. The result is that no one reads the terms and conditions for a given product or