0936211399 HOTLINE As a business you are responsible for the personal information of your clients and staff. By law, you are required to safeguard the information and ensure that it is used correctly. However, it is not always clear what is considered personal information.
It is important to understand that the definition of personal information varies depending on the country and the jurisdiction. Generally, it means any information that could www.bizinfoportal.co.uk/ identify an individual. This includes information like the name of the individual, email address or phone number, but also other data that could link to an individual and allow them to be identified for instance, their date of birth and mother’s maiden name. biometric data including passport and visa details as well as credit card details, and other sensitive employment information (e.g. performance ratings and disciplinary records).
The information must also be identifiable by others. If it is very difficult for anyone else to recognize the information, then it is not considered to be personal. This is called the “practicability” test.
The final factor in determining whether something is personal is that it has to be about a living, identified person. This does not include business information such as invoices, orders or any other documents that are used for business.
Personal information with sensitive content can be extremely damaging if it is lost, stolen or otherwise divulged without authorization. It is crucial to educate employees about the importance of protecting sensitive PII. It is also important to make steps to secure the information that is not in use for example, by logging off computers unsupervised and destruction of paper records. It is essential to periodically review the PII in your system and to restrict access to those who have an official reason for doing this.
