Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

Personally identifiable information encompasses any single piece of data or combination of data points that can identify or locate a specific person. Direct identifiers include full name, Social Security number, passport number, and biometric records. Indirect identifiers include date of birth, postcode, employer, and IP address — individually innocuous but potentially identifying when combined.

PII is the primary target of data breaches, phishing campaigns, and data-broker harvesting because it provides the raw material for identity fraud, social engineering, and account takeover. Criminals who assemble a comprehensive PII profile on a target can impersonate them to financial institutions, take over accounts, or craft highly convincing spear-phishing messages.

Consumers have limited ability to prevent their PII from circulating once it has been exposed in a breach, but they can reduce harm by monitoring their credit, freezing it proactively, and using services that alert them when their information appears in new data sets or on dark-web markets.