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PII: How New Technology Makes It Easier To Maintain Compliance

By Todd M. Haley
October 28, 2011

Personally identifiable information (PII) is any data about an individual that could, potentially identify that person, such as a name, fingerprints or other biometric data, e-mail address, street address, telephone number or Social Security Number (SSN).

A study done at MIT by Latanya Sweeney, now a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, found that 87% of the population in the United States could be uniquely identified by just three pieces of PII: their five-digit zip code, gender and date of birth. This demonstrates that SSNs, while valuable, is not necessary to identify unique individuals.

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