What is personal data? Everyday examples from the apps you use

Personal data is information about an identified or identifiable person. It includes obvious details such as your name, but information can identify you without naming you directly.

A location history may show where you live. A calendar entry can reveal something about the people attending. Even an opinion can be personal data if it relates to an identifiable person.

You do not need to become a lawyer to recognise what you are sharing. Look at what a piece of information says about someone and whether the recipient could work out who that person is.

A name is only one way to identify someone

Your email address can identify you. So can an account number connected to your customer record, even if someone reading the number alone would not know your name.

Several ordinary details can work together. “The person who manages the only bookshop on this street” may identify someone very clearly to a local reader.

In the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office explains personal data through identification and the information’s relationship to the person. The exact legal rules depend on the jurisdiction. The useful everyday habit is to consider the surrounding context rather than looking only for names.

Your apps contain information about other people too

A contact entry includes another person’s details. A message thread records what they said. Your photographs may show people who never chose to share them with the service receiving the file.

Before uploading a document to an AI assistant, read it for information about everyone involved. A tenancy email might include your landlord’s private number. A meeting note might mention a colleague’s health.

For a request to improve the wording of an email, the assistant usually needs the message you are trying to communicate. It may not need the full thread underneath it.

Copy the relevant passage into a new document and remove the surrounding material. Read that smaller version before sending it. This reduces what you disclose and gives the assistant a clearer task.

Some ordinary records can be especially revealing

A shopping receipt may seem harmless until it reveals a private purchase. A recurring calendar appointment can reveal a routine you would not publish.

UK data protection law gives particular treatment to defined special categories of data, including health information and political opinions. Financial information is not automatically special category data under that definition, but a bank statement can still be highly sensitive.

The legal label is not a ranking of how much you would regret a disclosure. Treat a password or a private conversation carefully regardless of whether it fits a particular statutory category.

The ICO’s special category guidance explains the defined categories and their scope.

Removing the name may not make a document anonymous

Replacing “Jo” with “Person A” can make a document easier to share, but other details may still identify Jo.

Suppose a message describes the only person in a small team who is moving to Edinburgh next month. Their colleagues could recognise them without a name. If you are asking an assistant to improve the wording, you could remove the location and date unless those details are needed.

Think about who will receive the information and what they may already know. A document that is difficult for a stranger to interpret can be obvious to someone familiar with the situation.

The ICO’s anonymisation guidance explains why identification through other available information needs to be considered. Changing a name is not a guarantee of anonymity.

Give an assistant what the task needs

If you want help planning dinners, you can state the dietary requirements that matter. You do not need to send a complete medical record to explain that a recipe must avoid peanuts.

If you want help comparing household spending, a table of category totals may answer the question without exposing every transaction.

The same judgement applies to connected apps. A connection can make useful information available, but the task should determine what is read. Convenience is a reason to make a deliberate choice, rather than to share every available source.

Choose continuing context with AI Passport

AI Passport holds selected personal context that connected assistants can use with your permission. It helps you distinguish a useful preference from the private source material that led you to it.

For example, you might want assistants to recommend vegetarian meals. You can propose that preference in Passport without saving a detailed account of your health or beliefs. A permitted assistant can then retrieve it when helping you choose a recipe.

Read the proposed memory before approving it. Check that the wording reflects what you want reused and does not add an explanation you never gave. Approval of the memory is separate from app access to the relevant context.

Sensitive information has separate handling boundaries. Do not treat ordinary memory as a place to deposit passwords or full payment-card details. Revoking access later also cannot erase information already delivered to another service.

Read about AI Passport’s controls.

Before sharing something, ask whether the assistant needs that detail to answer well. Often, a smaller and more deliberate version of the information does the job.