What is personally identifiable information?
Personally identifiable information includes your name, address, phone and fax numbers, email address, social security number, financial and credit card account numbers, and any other numbers or information that can be linked directly to your identity. For example, persistent identifiers such as a customer number held in a cookie or a processor serial number associated with an individual identity is considered personally identifiable information. It does not include information that is collected anonymously, such as number of visitors to a Web site, or general demographic information not connected to your individual identity.
An Educational Service of the American Library Association Office for Information Technology Policy Prepared by Leslie Harris & Associates www.lharris.com in conjunction with OITP staff www.ala.org/oitp —————————————————— At the heart of online privacy is the collection of “personally identifiable information.” The term “personally identifiable information” or “PII” includes any information that can be directly identified or linked to a specific individual, with or without his or her knowledge. Personally identifiable information can be collected when library patrons engage in a variety of activities online, such as e-commerce. It can also be collected by libraries themselves. Commercial web sites use PII to create personalized web pages and other features many users enjoy. For example, when a library patron registers and sets up a newspaper home page, or registers for an online health newsletter, his or her preferences are PII. Similarly, if a patro
Related Questions
- How will NACE, or the Rice University Center for Student Professional Development, use the personally identifiable information collected?
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