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Course: AP®︎/College Computer Science Principles > Unit 7
Lesson 2: PII (Personally identifiable information)(PII) Personally Identifiable Information
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) includes things that can identify you directly, such as your social security number, to things that may help identify you indirectly, such as your phone number or birthday. If that information falls into the wrong hands, you could be tracked without your knowledge or even have your identity stolen. Created by Sal Khan.
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- What is Personally Identifiable Information?(0 votes)
- Personally Identifiable Information is any information that can be found to personally identify you, such as name, address, ssn, credit card info, etc(22 votes)
- imagene u actually gave away someone's ssn(16 votes)
- What could be legitimate, legal reasons to give someone your PII? Obviously hospitals would need your real info...(5 votes)
- A lot of things related to finances (such as applying for loans or opening a bank account) will require PII.(8 votes)
- Sal, I thought you was actually telling us your SSN, or social security number.(6 votes)
- how long on average does this course take?(3 votes)
- what if some type of hacker get your password and then you change it will they be able to still get in your own account?(2 votes)
- If you change the password, then probably not. However, they could have added their information to the account recovery options (assuming the account has one), so they could get back into the account. Of course, if they did that, then they likely would have also changed the password to prevent you from getting back into the account and changing it yourself.
One thing to keep in mind though is that even if you change the password for that account, the hacker will likely try to use that password on other accounts because people tend to reuse passwords. This type of attack is called credential stuffing and is quite common. That is why you should never reuse passwords.(5 votes)
- who is allowed to know your PII(2 votes)
- Really the only person that is actually allowed to know your PII is you.(3 votes)
- Social Security Number. It is unique for United States residents, and is a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary (working) residents.
It has since come to be used as an identifier for individuals within the United States, although rare errors occur where duplicates do exist. Thus it is classified as a PII.(4 votes)
- are you sher its not your sin(2 votes)
- they meant your Social Security Number(1 vote)
- Why is it bad to click on a sponserd website(1 vote)
- Clicking on a sponsored website may potentially lead to negative outcomes. Sponsored websites are paid advertisements, and the content on such sites may not always be trustworthy or secure. These websites may include malware or viruses that can harm your computer or steal your personal information. Additionally, some websites may attempt to scam you by requesting your personal information or money. It is advisable to exercise caution when clicking on any link or website and ensure that you have reliable antivirus software installed on your computer.(3 votes)
Video transcript
- Hi everyone. Sal Khan here from Khan academy. My Social Security Number is 857, - 32 - 5567. No, it's not. I wouldn't tell you my Social
Security Number like that. And that's because it is personally identifiable
information, or PII. And there's a reason why
you want to keep that to yourself, or at least
limit who has access to PII. Because if someone has access,
they can expose your privacy, tell the world where you
live, they could track you and they could tell the
world what you've been up to, maybe when you should be working what websites you're visiting, or, even worse, potentially,
they could steal your identity, take money out of your bank account, take a credit card in your name, do some other form of identity theft that could be embarrassing,
or super costly. So, if you have some type of a service, either online or otherwise,
that's asking for something like your Social Security Number, or your birthday, which might
be a little bit more indirect, or your email address,
or your phone number, you might ask why. Sometimes there's a legitimate reason why they need to know these things but many times, I'd argue
even most of the time, there might not be a legitimate reason. And so you need to ask yourself, well what are they going to do with it? And if you don't feel comfortable
giving that information, ask yourself, do you
really need that service? So think seriously about your PII. Unfortunately, bad actors
on the Internet are coming up with new ways of
leveraging both direct PII, personally identifiable information like Social Security Numbers, even biometrics, even your name, and indirect measures, or
indirect pieces of PII, like your birthday, or your
address, or your email address, or your phone number,
that can be put together to do shady things with your identity. So be very careful.