Smartphones and social media have significantly contributed to the widespread collection of personal data, making it a pervasive and controversial issue.
Major breaches at companies like Equifax, Target, Yahoo, Home Depot, and the United States Office of Personnel Management have compromised the personal and financial data of millions of Americans, leading to calls for improved information security and PII protection.
According to the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), PII is defined as:[3] (1) Any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity, such as a name, social security number, date and place of birth, mother's maiden name, or biometric records.
(2) Any other information that is linked or linkable to an individual, such as medical, educational, financial, and employment information.PII gathering refers to the collection, organization, manipulation, analysis, exchange, or sharing of such data.
[7] China uses big data to enhance governance, employing advanced surveillance networks like the "Skynet" system with 20 million cameras.
[11] With advancements in internet and mobile technologies, private companies collect PII through user registrations, location tracking, cookies, and other methods.
Notable examples include North Korean hackers targeting Sony Pictures and the large-scale breach at Equifax that exposed sensitive data from millions of users.
[18] The FTC also uses the Behavioral Advertising Principe to provide guidelines and suggestions for website operators on data collection practices, activity tracking, and opt-out mechanisms.
The unauthorized collection and use of data, as seen in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, has fueled distrust in major platforms like Facebook, with many users demanding stricter government regulation.