What is Personally Identifiable Information (PII)?

Recently, someone asked if an email address is considered PII. The answer is yes, and here is a list of all the other PII as defined by HIPPA.

• Names;

• Geographic subdivisions smaller than a State, including street address, city, county, precinct, zip
  code, and their equivalent geocodes, except for the initial three digits of a zip code if, according to the current publicly available data from the Bureau of the Census: (1) The geographic unit formed by combining all zip codes with the same three initial digits contains more than 20,000 people.

• All elements of dates (except year) for dates directly related to an individual, including birth date, admission date, discharge date, date of death; and all ages over 89 and all elements of dates (including year) indicative of such age, except that such ages and elements may be aggregated into a
  single category of age 90 or older;

• Telephone numbers;
• Fax numbers;
• Electronic mail addresses;
• Social security numbers;
• Medical record numbers;
• Health plan beneficiary numbers;
• Account numbers;
• Certificate/license numbers;
• Vehicle identifiers and serial numbers, including license plate numbers;
• Device identifiers and serial numbers;
• Web Universal Resource Locators (URLs);
• Internet Protocol (IP) address numbers;
• Biometric identifiers, including finger and voice prints;
• Full face photographic images and any comparable images; and
• Any other unique identifying number, characteristic, or code

Hat tip to Ray Everett-Church, Esq.

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