As a company you are responsible for the personal information of your clients and employees. According to law, you’re required to safeguard the information and ensure that it is used correctly. It isn’t always clear what constitutes personal information.

It is essential to recognize that the definition of personal information is different by legal jurisdiction and country. In general, personal information refers to any information that can be used to identify the identity of a person. This could include information such as the person’s email address or telephone number, however it can also include any other information that could be associated with an person, thereby making them identifiable. For instance their birth date or maiden name of their www.bizinfoportal.co.uk/ mother, biometric data and information about passports and visas as well as credit card details as well as other sensitive data related to employment (e.g. Performance ratings and disciplinary records).

Furthermore the information must be able to be identified by others. If it is difficult for others to identify the information then it is not considered to be personal. This is called the “practicability” test.

The final stage in determining whether something is personal is to ensure that it can be related to a living, identifiable person. This excludes information that is business-related, like invoices or orders.

Personal information that is sensitive to the public can be extremely damaging if it is lost, stolen or otherwise disclosed without authorization. It is vital to educate employees on the importance of protecting sensitive PII. You should also take steps to safeguard the information even when it’s not being used such as by locking off computers that are not being used and destruction of documents on paper. It is also important to regularly review the PII stored within your system and restrict access to those with an obligation to do so.

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