What is personally identifiable information?
PII stands for Personally Identifiable Information: information that identifies a person directly or in combination with other details. An email address is an obvious example; a rare role in a small team can also identify someone.
Not all confidential information is PII. Product plans, margins or source code can contain business secrets without naming a person. A data policy therefore complements automated detection.
Detect, replace and restore under control
AI Link's protection path uses patterns and language-based detection, including Presidio, to identify personal information. Detected spans are replaced with placeholders for external processing. A protected mapping allows results to be restored to the right context afterwards.
Where re-identification remains possible, this is generally pseudonymisation and GDPR remains relevant. True anonymisation requires that a person can no longer be identified, including through reasonably available additional information.
Plan for the limits
No detector reliably finds every sensitive detail. Typos, unusual names, images and indirect clues are challenging. AI Link also considers approved providers and the trust boundary of each route. Protected paths should block when detection is unavailable; deliberately configured exceptions need a separate assessment.
The browser demo illustrates the principle with simple rules. It is not an evaluation of production detection quality. A pilot needs representative, approved test cases and a review of missed information.
Sources & further reading
Original research, provider documentation and further reading on the concepts and figures discussed here.