What qualifies as personal data?
Asked by: Lesly Hodkiewicz | Last update: May 24, 2026Score: 4.2/5 (3 votes)
Personal data is any information that can directly or indirectly identify a living individual, including obvious details like names, addresses, and email, as well as online identifiers (IP addresses, cookie IDs), location data, photos, unique numbers (ID, phone), and even less obvious data like health records or behavioral patterns when linked to a person. This broad category covers data that, alone or combined with other data, makes a person identifiable, falling under regulations like the EU's GDPR.
What counts as personal data?
In practice, these also include all data which are or can be assigned to a person in any kind of way. For example, the telephone, credit card or personnel number of a person, account data, number plate, appearance, customer number or address are all personal data.
What are 5 examples of personal data?
What is personal data?
- a name and surname.
- a home address.
- an email address such as 'name.surname@company.com '
- an Internet Protocol (IP) address.
- an identification card number.
- a cookie ID.
- the advertising identifier of your phone.
- data held by a hospital or doctor, which could be a symbol that uniquely identifies a person.
What is considered my personal data?
Personal data includes obvious identifiers such as names, addresses, and Social Security numbers, as well as online identifiers like IP addresses, email addresses, and cookie IDs.
Is a bank account number considered personal data?
Personally identifiable information (PII) is any data that can be used to identify someone. All information that directly or indirectly links to a person is considered PII. One's name, email address, phone number, bank account number, and government-issued ID number are all examples of PII.
What is personal data under GDPR?
Which of the following is not personal data?
Information concerning a 'legal' rather than a 'natural' person is not personal data. Consequently, information about a limited company or another legal entity, which might have a legal personality separate to its owners or directors, does not constitute personal data and does not fall within the scope of the UK GDPR.
Is browsing history personal data?
Personal Data Defined
This personal data could be as simple as a name, but could also include other identifiers, such as an IP address, browsing history, or even cookies (the small files websites save to your computer to store preferences).
What are the four types of personal data?
Categories of Personal Data
- Basic Identifiers: Information such as: ...
- Sensitive Data (Special Categories): Sensitive personal data requires extra care due to its private nature. ...
- Behavioral and Digital Identifiers: Data points derived from online behavior or usage patterns, such as: ...
- Financial Information: Information like:
Are emails personal data?
This may be considered business data. However, if the email address includes an individual's name, such as john.smith@companyname.com, it could be considered personal data. This is because the email address can be used to identify the individual and is used for work-related communication.
How to determine if data is personal?
Under modern privacy laws, personal information / PII can include at least these types of data: Identifiers of individuals – real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, IP address, email address, account name, Social Security number, driver's license number, passport number.
What are examples of non-personal data?
Non-personal data can further be classified as: (i) Public non-personal data: data collected or generated by the government in course of publicly funded works. For example, anonymised data of land records or vehicle registration can be considered as public non-personal data.
Is a phone number considered personal data?
Examples of personally identifiable information (PII) include: Social security number (SSN), passport number, driver's license number, taxpayer identification number, patient identification number, and financial account or credit card number. Personal address and phone number.
What are 10 examples of sensitive personal information?
Definition of Sensitive Personal Information
- Racial or ethnic origin.
- Political opinions.
- Religious or philosophical beliefs.
- Trade union membership.
- Genetic data.
- Biometric data.
- Health data.
- Sexual orientation or sex life.
Is a fingerprint personal data?
“personal data resulting from specific technical processing relating to the physical, physiological or behavioural characteristics of a natural person, which allow or confirm someone's unique identification of that natural person, such as facial images or dactyloscopic [fingerprint] data.”
Is GPS location personal data?
GPS data (also known as location data) qualifies as personal data under the GDPR when it can identify a natural person – directly or indirectly. Think of tracking vehicles, mobile phones, or wearable devices linked to an individual.
What are the 7 principles of personal data?
A business dealing with the processing of personal data is legally obligated to comply with the 7 personal data protection principles. The principles are the General Principle, Notice and Choice Principle, Disclosure Principle, Security Principle, Retention Principle, Data Integrity Principle and Access Principle.
Can I read my employees' emails?
Employers can access stored emails located on the company system but cannot access private emails. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Initially enacted to address computer hacking. However, it also applies to employers whose monitoring goes beyond what they are authorized.
What exactly is personal data?
Personal data is information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual. What identifies an individual could be as simple as a name or a number or could include other identifiers such as an IP address or a cookie identifier, or other factors.
What is not personal data?
Information about companies or public authorities is not personal data. However, information about individuals acting as sole traders, employees, partners and company directors where they are individually identifiable and the information relates to them as an individual may constitute personal data.
Is voice recording personal data?
To conclude, voice recordings (combined, if necessary, with other elements) enable, in almost all circumstances, the inference of one's identity and therefore constitute personal data requiring appropriate protection.
What are 5 examples of personal information?
Five examples of personal information include your full name, home address, date of birth, Social Security Number (SSN), and email address, but it also extends to things like your phone number, financial details (bank accounts), biometric data (fingerprints), medical records, and online identifiers (IP address) that can identify you.
Can you check if someone has googled you?
No, you generally cannot directly see who Googles you, as Google doesn't provide that specific notification for general searches; however, you can get alerts if your own personal info appears in new search results via Google's "Results about you" tool, and website owners can see which search terms bring traffic to their site, potentially hinting at interest. While no magic app reveals searchers, you can use tools like Google Alerts and Google Trends to monitor your online presence indirectly.
Can the FBI see deleted search history?
Law enforcement agencies can gain access to deleted history through the utilization of specialized tools known as forensic software. These tools enable them to scan your computer or device, searching for deleted files that have not yet been overwritten.
Is bank account number personal data?
Driver's license number. Bank account number. Credit or debit card number. Personal characteristics, including photographic image, fingerprints, handwriting or other unique biometric data.