Collecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII) on Prime Panels

On Prime Panels you can collect data considered PII as long as you disclose it during your study setup. Disclosing that your study collects PII allows panel providers to only direct people to your study who have previously consented to sharing PII.

What is Personally Identifiable Information (PII)?

Personally Identifiable Information includes any information that can be used to identify, contact, or locate an individual, either alone or combined with other easily accessible sources.  PII also includes information that is linked or linkable to an individual such as medical, education, financial, and employment information.

These are examples of PII:

  • Name: full name, maiden name, mother's maiden name, or alias
  • Address: street address, email address, zip code+5
  • Telephone numbers
  • Personal identification numbers: social security number (SSN), passport number, driver‘s license number, taxpayer identification number, patient identification number, and financial account or credit card number
  • Information identifying personally owned property: VIN number or title number, license plate
  • Asset information: Internet Protocol (IP) or Media Access Control (MAC) addresses that consistently link to a particular person
  • Biometric data: retina scans, voice signatures, or facial geometry

The following examples on their own do not constitute PII as more than one person could share these traits. However, when linked or linkable to one of the above examples, the following could be used to identify a specific person - another name for this is "linkable information".

  • Business information (phone numbers, email addresses, etc.);
  • Religion;
  • Geographical information;
  • Date and place of birth;
  • Medical or educational info;
  • Financial status;
  • Employment track record;
  • Race, ethnicity;