Personal data are pieces of information that can be used to identify an individual either directly or indirectly.
Examples of personal data that allow direct identification include:
- name,
- personal identity code,
- email address based on the person’s name, and
- biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, facial images, voice, and iris patterns.
Examples of personal data that allow indirect or partial identification include:
- gender,
- age,
- education, and
- nationality.
Indirect or partial identifiers can also be combined to identify a person. Therefore, removing or replacing direct personal identifiers does not necessarily mean that the data no longer contains personal data.
Special categories (or sensitive) personal data include, for example:
- ethnic origin,
- sexual orientation or behaviour,
- health data,
- biometric data, and
- genetic data.
Highly protected personal data include, for example:
- psychiatric data,
- social welfare data, and
- data related to sexually transmitted diseases and medical genetics.