Personally identifiable information
Level 1
Any information that can be traced back to a specific person.
Term 2 of 6 in Safety and privacy
In plain language
Personally identifiable information, or PII, includes names, emails, addresses, card numbers and identifiers that combine to single someone out. Sending it to an AI model is a decision, and often a regulated one.
Think of it like this
A luggage tag with your home address on it.
Why it matters
Knowing what counts as PII is the difference between a useful AI feature and an accidental data breach.
Next terms in Safety and privacy
- BiasA model systematically favouring or disadvantaging certain people or outcomes.
- Data retentionHow long a service keeps what you send it, and what it does with it.
- Prompt injectionHiding instructions inside content so a model obeys the attacker instead of you.
- AlignmentHow well an AI system's behaviour matches what people actually intend.