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Data definitions

This page contains a list of definitions for different types of data.

Public Data

Proprietary Data

Confidential Data

Secret Data

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) 

Sensitive Personally Identifiable Information (SPII) 

Intellectual Property

Industrial Control Data

Information that is authorised for public dissemination.  

Information created or obtained in the normal course of business and not classified as Secret, Confidential, or Public that if disclosed to the public may cause some negative consequences.

Information that supports a Company's technical or financial position and which, if disclosed without authorisation, could cause damage to the Company

Information of a strategic nature that, if disclosed without authorisation, would cause substantial, severe, or irreperable damage to a Company, or it's relationships

PII is any information that alone or used in conjunction with other information can be used to identify a living individual and provided information related to them in a "biographical" sense.

PII can include a person’s name or other identifier combined with, for example, contact details (E.g. address, phone number, email address, etc), data of birth, statements of opinion or intention about the individual, driving behaviours associated to a VIN/licence plate number, geo-location data, bank account or debit/credit card details, salary or payroll information etc.

Information relates to an individual in a “biographical sense” if: (1) the content tells you something about a person (e.g. their financial or professional situation) or allows you to learn, decide or record something about an individual: or (2) your use of the information could have an impact on an individual. 

SPII is a subcategory of PII which is particularly privacy sensitive or could cause substantial harm or distress if lost or misused.  

SPII includes the racial/ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or other personal beliefs, trade union membership, physical/mental health, sexual orientation, information relating to criminal offences, or criminal proceeding/sentencing, biometric or genetic data.

Intellectual Property (IP) is the term given collectively to patenets, registered designs, trade marks and copyright.

Intellectual Property might include research material, product designs, trade marks, software, or any other patented, registered designs, trade marks or copyrighted material

Data pertaining to Industrial Control Systems.

Industrial Control Systems: Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, Distributed Control Systems (DCS), Programmable Logical Controllers (PLC's - including Manufacturing and Engineering devices), Confidential Manufacturing processes or Confidential Manufacturing Systems data

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