Also known as: Personally Identifiable Information · personal data · personal information
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Data that identifies or can be used to identify a specific individual, such as names, addresses, passwords, or other personal details collected or processed in administrative, commercial, or digital contexts.
Priya Prasad fills a prescription for a controlled medication at her local pharmacy. The state health department collects her name and address along with those of other patients and stores the information in a centralized computer system equipped with access controls and audit logs. When Priya challenges the collection as an invasion of privacy, the court upholds the program because the safeguards prevent unauthorized disclosure of her PII.
Piper Patel discovers that a people-search website has published a profile containing incorrect employment and income information about her. She alleges that the company failed to follow reasonable procedures to ensure accuracy of the PII it disseminated to prospective employers. The court examines whether the alleged inaccuracies caused concrete harm sufficient to support standing for her claim.
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Pedro Pacheco, a physician, objects when a data-mining firm obtains records of the medicines he prescribes and sells the PII to pharmaceutical sales representatives. The state law restricts such use of prescribing information without physician consent. The court analyzes whether the restriction on commercial use of this PII violates the First Amendment.
Patrick Phan creates a fictitious online profile using the name and photo of a classmate without permission. The resulting publication of the classmate's PII leads to emotional distress and reputational harm. Prosecutors charge Phan with a misdemeanor that turns on the unauthorized use of another person's identifying information.
Priscilla Parks learns that her state motor vehicle agency is selling her name, address, and photograph to direct-mail marketers. She sues, claiming the disclosure of her PII violates federal privacy protections. The court considers whether Congress validly conditioned federal highway funds on the state's agreement not to release such records.
Pierre Poulin signs a referendum petition and later seeks to keep his name and address private when the state prepares to release the petition records. The disclosure would reveal his PII to political opponents and the general public. The court weighs whether the First Amendment requires anonymity for petition signers or permits public access to the identifying information.
No. Consent is effective only as to the invasion the person reasonably understands she is accepting. When a company misrepresents the scope of data collection, the user's consent does not validate the undisclosed capture of PII such as passwords.
Only the person whose personal identity is implicated. A bystander or friend cannot supply effective consent for the collection of another adult's PII through facial-mapping technology.
When the plaintiff is within the class the regulation protects. Consumer-protection rules aimed at preventing identity theft extend to named beneficiaries whose PII is stored and disclosed by an insurer.
No. Apparent consent is ineffective when induced by a misrepresentation of legal authority. The false assertion that a court order compels production of the device and its PII vitiates any agreement.
…consumer reporting agency, operates a “people search engine,” which searches a wide spectrum of databases to gather and provide personal information about individuals to a variety of users, including employers wanting to evaluate prospective employees. After respondent Thomas Robins discovered that his Spokeo-generated profile contained…