The definition of customer data is any first-party behavioral, demographic and personal information that organizations collect directly from their customers or obtain from a third party, such as a data broker or business partner, and which can be traced back to a customer.
Yet, the definition of customer data can be somewhat circumstantial. Regulatory bodies in various countries, as well as individual states within the United States, may categorize certain types of information as personally identifiable information (PII). For instance, a device’s media access control (MAC) or internet protocol (IP) address could be considered PII if it can be used to identify an individual, explained Sameer Ansari, managing director for cybersecurity and privacy at Protiviti.
