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Personally Identifiable InformationA DefinitionPersonally Identifiable Information (PII) is a term of art in the area of website privacy. It's plain definition is any information which may identify a specific individual. Examples of PII include name, home address, social security number, e-mail address and credit card numbers. Seems simple enough but there are shades of gray. For instance information such as the name of your employer or birth date can help identify you but do not, on their own, necessarily do so. Consider home address. I currently live in a detached home with only one other individual (my wife). Years ago I lived in a massive apartment complex in Arlington, VA (outside of Washington, DC). The address was 1400 South Joyce Street. Approximately 600 people lived in this building all with the same address. Which brings us to the most contention piece of PII--IP address. The IP address assigned to each login originates with the internet service provider and is assigned to the device that actually connects you to the internet. In my home, my internet service provider is Charter Communications. Every time I log in at home I get the same IP. But if I take my laptop over to the coffee house up the street, I get a different IP. Further blurring the lines, some devices generate dynamic IP addresses (i.e., a different one each session) as opposed to static IP. Do IP addresses help identify an individual? Yes, to an extent. In the European Union, it is my understanding that IP addresses are PII by law. In the United States, the issue is open to debate. Here is an article written by a Google employee arguing that IP addresses should not be PII. For purposes of the privacy policy statement template sold on this website, we consider an IP address to be PII. Created: 11-24-2008 |
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