PII and personal data
PII commonly means information that identifies or can be linked to a person. “Personal data” is a broader legal term in some jurisdictions and may include online identifiers, behavior, location, and combinations of information.
Redaction and masking
Redaction removes or permanently obscures content from a shared artifact. Masking replaces values with placeholders or partial representations. A visual cover is not true redaction when the underlying text remains recoverable.
Anonymization and pseudonymization
Anonymization aims to prevent identification. Pseudonymization replaces identifiers but retains a way to relate records or reverse the process. A simple name replacement rarely guarantees anonymity.
Metadata, EXIF, and hashing
Metadata describes a file or its creation. EXIF is a common image metadata format. A cryptographic hash is a fingerprint of bytes used for integrity checks, not encryption or malware detection.