What is Personal Identifiable Information (PII)?

• A. Public records data that cannot identify individuals
• B. Information stored only on a private device
• C. Any information that can be used to identify a specific person
• D. Information about personal habits only

Answer: (C)

PII means any information that can be used to identify a specific person. This includes direct identifiers like a person’s name, Social Security number, or passport number. It also includes data that can identify someone when it’s combined with other information, such as a birth date, ZIP code, or email address. The core idea is identifiability: if the data can be linked to an individual, it’s PII. So information on a private device can be PII if it reveals who you are, and public records often contain PII because they identify people. It’s not about whether the data describes personal habits or whether it’s public or private; it’s about whether the information can identify a person.