Unit 2 of 12
Defining personal information
Personal information is anything that could identify a person — and it rarely needs a name attached.
Information that identifies a person
Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. It does not have to name the person — it only has to make them identifiable. In a school setting that net is wide.
Examples of personal information include:
- A spreadsheet of students' names and NSN (National Student Number).
- Boarding house CCTV footage showing a recognisable student.
- A pastoral note from a conversation between a dean and a student.
Because the test is identifiability, a record can be personal information even when the name is absent — if the surrounding detail would let someone work out who it is. In a small year group, "the only boarder from overseas in Year 9" identifies a person just as surely as a name.
Decide whether each example is personal information.
A campus map showing the number of each building.
A staff member's payslip.
Decide whether each example is personal information.
A log of which staff have opened a particular student's pastoral file.
A board report stating that the school enrolled 1,520 students this year.