What Are Examples of PII?
September 10, 2025
Table of contents
Key takeaway
Personally identifiable information, or PII, includes anything that can identify you—such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers, financial data, and even digital identifiers like IP addresses. Some PII is considered more sensitive than others, but all of it can be exploited if exposed. Understanding examples of PII helps individuals and organizations protect against identity theft, fraud, and data breaches.
Video Overview
In the digital age, the concept of personally identifiable information, or PII, has become one of the most important topics in cybersecurity and data privacy. Whether you realize it or not, you share pieces of your personal identity every day when you shop online, log in to an app, or even swipe your badge at work. Those data points, when tied together, create a detailed picture of who you are. That’s why PII is considered highly valuable—and highly vulnerable. Understanding what counts as PII, and more importantly, the specific examples of it, is critical for both individuals and organizations who want to protect themselves from identity theft, fraud, and cyberattacks.
What is Personally Identifiable Information (PII)?
PII is any piece of information that can be used to identify a specific person. It doesn’t always have to be something unique on its own—sometimes a combination of seemingly harmless details can still pinpoint an individual. For example, your first name alone isn’t necessarily sensitive. But your full name combined with your date of birth and mailing address creates a unique profile that no one else shares. This is why PII is so broadly defined and why it’s so valuable for both legitimate businesses and malicious actors.
Regulators, privacy advocates, and security professionals often stress that PII isn’t just about protecting secrecy. Instead, it’s about protecting identity. Anything that can trace back to you—directly or indirectly—fits into this category.
Why is PII Important?
The importance of PII comes down to risk and trust. Organizations rely on personal data to verify accounts, provide services, and comply with legal requirements. At the same time, individuals must trust those organizations to handle PII responsibly. When PII is misused or exposed, the results can be devastating. Identity theft, fraudulent loans, unauthorized medical claims, and even social engineering attacks all stem from compromised personal data.
For businesses, protecting PII isn’t just a security issue—it’s a legal obligation. Many data privacy laws around the world, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), require strict safeguards for personal data. For individuals, understanding PII is a matter of self-defense. Knowing what counts as PII helps you think twice before sharing it and recognize when it might be at risk.
Common Examples of PII
Some of the most obvious examples of PII are the pieces of data we use in everyday life. Your full name is the foundation of your personal identity. Your home address tells someone exactly where you live. Phone numbers and email addresses connect you directly to communication channels. Driver’s license numbers and passport details verify your identity for travel or official purposes.
Even something like your date of birth—something you might casually post on social media—becomes PII because it’s often used as a security verification question. Employers, banks, and schools all collect these common identifiers because they serve as the building blocks of personal records. Individually they may not be harmful, but in the wrong hands, even basic PII can be used to impersonate you.
Sensitive PII Examples
Some personal data is considered “sensitive PII” because it carries a higher risk if exposed. Social Security numbers are one of the most well-known examples in the United States. With a single nine-digit number, a cybercriminal can commit identity theft, open credit accounts, or file fraudulent tax returns. Similarly, financial account numbers, credit card details, and bank routing information are highly sensitive because they provide direct access to your money.
Health information is another category of sensitive PII. Medical records, insurance policy numbers, or details about diagnoses fall under laws like HIPAA in the U.S. because of the deeply personal nature of this data. Biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, facial recognition scans, and voiceprints are also classified as sensitive because they are unique to you and cannot be changed if stolen. Unlike a password, you can’t simply reset your fingerprint.
Digital PII in the Online World
As our lives move online, PII is no longer just about paperwork and ID cards. Digital identifiers play an equally important role in defining who you are. Your IP address, for example, reveals your location and the device you’re using to connect to the internet. Device IDs and cookie data can track your activity across websites and applications, often used by advertisers but also targeted by attackers.
Usernames and login credentials are critical pieces of PII because they serve as the gateway to accounts containing far more sensitive data. If a criminal obtains your email and password, they can gain access to your banking, shopping, or healthcare portals. Geolocation data, collected by smartphones and apps, can reveal not only where you live but where you travel every day. This kind of tracking data, though often collected for convenience or analytics, still falls under the umbrella of personally identifiable information.
PII vs Non-PII: What’s the Difference?
It’s easy to get confused about what exactly counts as PII. Not every piece of data about a person is considered sensitive on its own. For instance, your gender, race, or job title may not uniquely identify you. These are often referred to as non-PII. However, when combined with other details, even non-PII can transform into identifying data. For example, “a 45-year-old female doctor living in a small town” might not include a name, but it could be specific enough to identify a single individual in certain contexts.
The difference between PII and non-PII comes down to whether the data can reasonably be used to identify a person directly or indirectly. Cybersecurity professionals often treat both categories with caution because non-PII can easily become identifying when aggregated with other datasets.
How PII is Used by Organizations
Organizations collect PII for a wide variety of reasons. Financial institutions use it to open accounts, verify transactions, and comply with anti-money-laundering laws. Healthcare providers need it to maintain patient records and ensure continuity of care. E-commerce platforms rely on PII to ship products, process payments, and provide customer support. Even social media companies build entire business models around collecting, analyzing, and monetizing personal data.
Not all use of PII is malicious or careless. In many cases, sharing personal data is necessary to receive services or benefits. The problem arises when PII is collected excessively, stored insecurely, or shared without consent. In today’s digital economy, organizations must balance the value of personal data with the responsibility of protecting it.
Risks of Exposed or Misused PII
The risks of PII exposure are well-documented and severe. Identity theft is the most obvious, with millions of victims each year facing damaged credit, fraudulent charges, and long recovery processes. But that’s just one example. Stolen medical information can be used to obtain prescription drugs, file false insurance claims, or access healthcare services under your name.
Phishing attacks often exploit PII by tricking individuals into handing over more personal data. For example, an attacker may already know your name and phone number, making a scam call sound more convincing. Business email compromise schemes also rely on stolen PII to impersonate executives and trick employees into transferring money. In every case, the misuse of personal data creates both financial and reputational damage.
How to Protect PII
Protecting PII requires a combination of technology, policies, and personal awareness. For individuals, one of the most important steps is to limit the amount of personal information shared online. Oversharing on social media, for example, can give attackers everything they need to impersonate you. Using strong, unique passwords and enabling multi-factor authentication adds another layer of protection to digital accounts.
For organizations, protecting PII means implementing encryption for data in transit and at rest, enforcing access controls so only authorized employees can see personal records, and training staff to recognize phishing or social engineering attempts. Incident response plans must also be in place so that if a breach occurs, affected individuals can be notified quickly and mitigation steps can begin.
Regulations Governing PII
Around the world, governments have recognized the importance of regulating PII. The European Union’s GDPR sets one of the strictest standards, requiring companies to minimize data collection, obtain consent, and provide individuals with control over their personal information. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) gives residents new rights to access, delete, and control how their data is used.
These laws not only penalize organizations that mishandle personal data but also encourage a culture of transparency and accountability. Compliance is no longer optional. Businesses that fail to protect PII face not just regulatory fines but also loss of customer trust.
Key Takeaways on Examples of PII
PII is everywhere, woven into almost every interaction we have with organizations and online platforms. Common examples like names and addresses may seem harmless, but when combined with sensitive details such as Social Security numbers, financial records, or biometric data, the risk of misuse becomes high. Digital identifiers like IP addresses, device IDs, and geolocation data also count as PII in today’s interconnected world.
Recognizing what counts as PII is the first step toward protecting it. Both individuals and organizations share responsibility for ensuring this information is handled carefully, securely, and lawfully. Whether through better cybersecurity practices, stronger privacy regulations, or more informed personal decisions, safeguarding PII is essential to protecting our digital identities.
Cyberhaven's Data Detection and Response platform uses proprietary data lineage technology to trace PII from origin through every transformation—even when compressed or encrypted—while Exact Data Match (EDM) fingerprinting precisely identifies specific sensitive records like SSNs and credit card numbers. Unlike legacy DLP that relies on pattern matching alone, Cyberhaven's Linea AI reduces false positives by 95% and blocks PII exfiltration in real-time across all channels including email, cloud apps, USB, AirDrop, and generative AI tools, without disrupting legitimate workflows. Ready to protect your organization's PII? Get started today.