Personal data
One key term in the General Data Protection Regulation is personal data. All data protection rules from the regulation revolve around this term. It means any information that relate to an identified or identifiable natural person (so, a human being), also known as a data subject in the legal test. This can be physical, genetic, biometric, social, economic or similar data, for instance a consumer’s name, occupation, hair colour or online ID such as an e-mail address, IP address or location coordinates.
Article 4(1) GDPR (Definitions)
“personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person
Source: Regulation (EU) 2016/679
