PII Scanner
What is PII?
PII stands for Personally Identifiable Information, which refers to any data that could potentially directly identify a specific individual. Examples of PII include a person’s name, address, social security number, email address, or phone number.
- PII: personal information that can be used to directly identify individuals and typically acts as identifier to preserve for example foreign key relations.
What does a PII scanner?
A PII scanner is a feature in the Syntho Engine that is used to search for PII and identify PII within an organization’s data. Syntho’s PII scanner can scan your databases and other data sources to identify instances of PII, e.g. in column names and text fields.
PII scanners are commonly used by organizations that need to comply with data protection regulations such as the GDPR, HIPAA or CCPA. These regulations require organizations to take measures to protect the privacy and security of personal information, and using a PII scanner can be an effective way to do so.
What can I do with PII after it is identified?
Example: Original text with identified PII:
“John Smith applied for a loan of $10,000 with our bank on 03/01/2023. He provided his social security number (123-45-6789), date of birth (01/01/1985), and employment information (Syntho). Our loan officer conducted a credit check and verified his information. Based on his credit score and employment history, he was approved for the loan and the funds were deposited into his account on 03/03/2023.”
Once a PII scanner has identified instances of PII, the user of the Syntho Engine can take steps to ensure that the information is properly protected. After PII is identified by our PII scanner, our Syntho Engine includes the ability to: (1) remove the identified PII, (2) replace identified PII with the entity or (3) replace identified PII with a mocker.
1 – remove the identified PII
The Syntho Engine allows users to remove identified PII. When PII is removed, it will simply be deleted from the data or replaced by a default value, such as “*” or “PII”. This allows organizations to protect information.
Text with PII removed:
“applied for a loan of with our bank on. He provided his social security number (), date of birth (), and employment information (). Our loan officer conducted a credit check and verified his information. Based on his credit score and employment history, he was approved for the loan and the funds were deposited into his account on.”
2 – replace identified PII with the entity
The Syntho Engine allows users to replace identified PII with the entity. An entity is a placeholder that replaces specific identifying information to protect an individual’s privacy.
When PII is replaced with entities, sensitive information such as names or dates are replaced with placeholders such as “<name>” or “<date>”. This allows organizations to maintain the structure of their data, while protecting the sensitive information contained within it.
Text with PII replaced by entities:
“<Name> applied for a loan of <Amount> with our bank on <date>. They provided their social security number (<SSN>), date of birth (<DOB>), and employment information (<Employer>). Our loan officer conducted a credit check and verified their information. Based on their credit score and employment history, they were approved for the loan and the funds were deposited into their account on <date>.”
3 – replace identified PII with a mocker
Similarly, the Syntho Engine allows users to replace identified PII with a mocker. A mocker is a fictitious value that is used to replace specific identifying information. Mocker values are not real and have no relation to the original data, but they maintain the same format as the original data to preserve its usability.
When PII is replaced with mockers, sensitive information is replaced with fictitious data. In this case, sensitive information such as names or dates are replaced with mock names such as “Wim Kees” or mock dates such as “03-05-2023”. This allows organizations to maintain the structure of their and have a representative mock value as alternative, while protecting the sensitive information contained within it.
Text with PII replaced by mockers:
“Jake Brown applied for a loan of $23,340 with our bank on 12/11/2023. They provided their social security number (987-65-4321), date of birth (04/02/1989), and employment information (XYZ Company). Our loan officer conducted a credit check and verified their information. Based on their credit score and employment history, they were approved for the loan and the funds were deposited into their account on 13/12/2023.”
Text with PII replaced by the default value “PII”:
“PII applied for a loan of PII with our bank on PII. They provided their social security number (PII), date of birth (PII), and employment information (PII). Our loan officer conducted a credit check and verified their information. Based on their credit score and employment history, they were approved for the loan and the funds were deposited into their account on PII.”
Save the PII Scanner document!
- What is PII?
- Why PII is important?
- How does PII Scanner work?
- PII Scanning and AI Generated Synthetic Data
