Comet pins her survey draft to the wall of the Commons. Two questions at the top still have Wren's stars next to them.
"Name and phone number," Comet reads. "That way we can thank everyone personally!"
Wren folds his arms, thinking. "What do you notice? Does the council's question need either one?"
Comet reads the council's letter again. "It asks what to add next. Not who wants it."
Nova hovers beside the draft. "Would you like a hint?" she asks. "For each question, ask one thing. Does it help answer what the council asked?"
Wren hands you a red pencil. "Data analyst, this is the privacy pass. What stays and what goes?"
Personally identifiable information, or PII, is information that identifies, links, relates to or describes a person.
Examples of PII include phone numbers, medical information and biometric data. A person's name is PII too.
In this course you never write down anyone's PII. The Commons members are known only by made-up IDs.
The crew follows one rule for every question: collect only what the council's question needs.
The council asked what the Commons should add next. It did not ask who wants what.
So the name and phone number questions go. The other six questions help answer the council.
| Comet's draft question | Does the council's question need it? |
|---|---|
| Your name | |
| Your phone number | |
| How often do you visit the Commons? | |
| When do you usually visit? | |
| What one thing should the Commons add next? | |
| How many times did you visit last week? | |
| How did you answer this survey? | |
| Anything else you want the council to know? |
| Statement | True or false? |
|---|---|
| PII is information that identifies or describes a person. | ? |
| A phone number is not PII. | ? |
| The crew collects only what the council's question needs. | ? |
| The council needs every member's name to choose what to add. | ? |
A sharp privacy pass. Tomorrow you look at data that gets collected without anyone noticing.