What is personal information?

What is personal information?

Text appears on screen: What is personal information?

[On screen, in the background, there is a photo of a young female worker looking at her laptop screen]

Narrator: You need to protect the personal information your business holds. But what exactly is considered personal information?

[Icons of three people appear on the screen and a dotted line goes around them in a circle. This dotted circle turns into a solid yellow circle. The image of the three people flips over and a question mark appears.]

Narrator: It’s more than just a person’s name or address. It’s something that can identify a person—either on its own or when combined with other information.

[The previous image disappears and is replaced by an image of a smart phone. An icon of a person appears near the top of the phone’s screen. Lines appear under the person, representing other information.]

Narrator: It could be data that’s clearly private, such as medical records, passwords or credit card numbers.

[The images on the smart phone change from the person icon to an icon of a cross, representing medical information, then to asterisks representing a password and then to an image of a credit card with numbers on it.]

Narrator: But it might not be so obvious. Things like personal opinions, social status, or even an intention to buy something new are all considered personal information as well.

[The smart phone icon disappears and the credit card icon moves down on the screen and then disappears. It is replaced by a thumbs-up icon, followed by an icon representing two wedding rings and then finally a shopping cart. All three images stay on the screen together. Then the images disappear.]

Text on screen changes to say: It’s time to start thinking about what personal information your business holds.