How is personal data defined?

Personal data is defined as information that relates to identifiable individuals. This means that any data that can be used to identify a person—whether directly or indirectly through identifiers such as names, identification numbers, location data, or online identifiers—falls under the category of personal data.

This definition is crucial in contexts such as data protection, privacy laws (like GDPR), and various business practices, as it emphasizes the importance of handling such information with care and respect for individuals' privacy rights.

Other choices do not align with this definition: data that cannot be tracked back to any individual is not personal data; encrypted records may protect personal data but do not change their nature; and data analyzed for business insights typically refers to aggregated or anonymized data rather than identifiable personal data.