Data Management Glossary
PII Detection
PII detection is the process of identifying and managing personally identifiable information within vast and dispersed data environments, such as file shares, emails, collaboration platforms, and cloud storage. Unlike structured databases, where PII is neatly categorized, unstructured data presents a challenge due to its free-form nature and proliferation across hybrid storage environments. Enterprise IT directors and storage IT managers need ways to automatically scan, tag, and classify sensitive data so that it’s properly stored and protected. This capability is essential for ensuring regulatory compliance, preventing inadvertent exposure, and securing customer trust in an era where data breaches are increasingly severe and costly. PII detection is also crucial for AI data governance. Organizations need controls and systems that can prevent the ingestion of sensitive data into generative AI models where the data can be exposed into the public domain.
Storage administrators and PII detection
PII and sensitive data detection is no longer solely a concern for cybersecurity teams; storage IT managers now play a pivotal role as data stewards, given that sensitive data can be easily copied and inadvertently stored in places where it doesn’t belong. Traditional security tools may identify PII but often lack integration with storage management platforms, limiting IT teams’ ability to act on the findings.
As storage environments become more distributed—spanning on-premises systems, cloud repositories, and edge locations—scalable solutions that allow real-time visibility and remediation of PII and sensitive data are critical. These solutions should not only detect PII but also provide tools to act on the findings: confine it for review, securely move the PII to compliant environments and/or exclude it from AI data pipelines.
Since unstructured data is the lifeblood for AI and business intelligence, enterprise IT leaders must ensure that only appropriate datasets are integrated into these workflows. The ability to filter and segregate PII from business-critical data ensures organizations can leverage unstructured data without creating legal, financial, or reputational risks. By adopting integrated PII detection and unstructured data management tools, storage and infrastructure teams can help close the gaps for enterprise IT security and privacy goals.
Learn more about Komprise capabilities for PII detection and sensitive data management.
