Which of the following is a valid example of a Personal Identifiable Information (PII) element?

• A. A work phone extension
• B. A social security number
• C. A department's budget
• D. A generic job title

Answer: (B)

PII consists of data that can be used to identify a specific individual. A social security number directly ties to a person and serves as a unique, highly sensitive identifier, making it a classic example of PII. The other items don’t identify a person on their own: a work phone extension may point to someone within an organization but isn’t unique across contexts and can be changed or shared; a department’s budget is organizational data; a generic job title describes a role rather than an individual. So the social security number is the valid PII element.