What Is PII Redaction?
PII redaction is a process of protecting sensitive personal information from unauthorized access. It is a procedure of removing or ‘blacking-out’ particular pieces of information from a document that could potentially lead to identification of an individual. It is a crucial step in information security as it helps to protect the privacy of individuals by removing their personal data from any documents or records.
What Types Of Data Can Be Redacted?
Personal Identifiable Information (PII) typically includes any data or information that can be used to identify a particular person. This includes but is not limited to:
- Name
- Address
- Email address
- Social Security number
- Bank account number
- Driver’s license number
- Phone number
- Date of birth
- Biometric information
Why Is PII Redaction Important?
PII redaction is an important part of data security and privacy protection. It helps protect the privacy of an individual by ensuring that their personal information is not exposed to unauthorized individuals or organizations. This is especially important for organizations that handle customers’ personal data, as leaking PII can result in serious legal and financial liability.
How Is PII Redaction Done?
There are several methods for redacting PII. The most common methods are manual redaction, automated redaction, and tokenization.
Manual Redaction
Manual redaction is the process of manually removing PII from a document. This is time-consuming and error-prone as it requires manual review of each document.
Automated Redaction
Automated redaction is the process of using software to automatically detect and remove PII. This is a much faster and more efficient way of redacting PII as it can detect PII in large volumes of documents quickly and accurately.
Tokenization
Tokenization is the process of replacing sensitive PII in a document with ‘placeholders’ or ‘tokens’. This ensures that the original information is not exposed while still allowing the data to be used.
Conclusion
PII redaction is a crucial step in protecting an individual’s privacy. It helps to ensure that sensitive personal information is not exposed to unauthorized individuals or organizations. There are a variety of methods for redacting PII, such as manual redaction, automated redaction, and tokenization.
Learn more about PII redaction:
- Veracode – PII Redaction
- Quora – What is PII Redaction?
- Techopedia – PII Redaction
