The Evolution of PII Protection Changing the way privacy is managed begins with understanding the different ways in which data has traditionally been protected. From encryption and hashing to the more recent introduction of data clean rooms, the many options for securing data all provide some of level of protection. Yet none of these methods alone fully protects data without processing complications or limiting functionality. So, what’s the best way? The reality is that it depends on your goals. So, let’s narrow our focus to the goal of protecting consumer identities while solving the “linkage problem.” The critical linkage problem can be defined as: Two independent entities (public or private) are each managing a dataset about individuals. The understanding of each individual’s identity is achieved using various identifiers such as name, postal address, email, and/or social security number. However, these components of personal data are sensitive and are tied to personal privacy rights, regulatory restrictions, and/or ethical handling concerns. The problem lies in how to enable the 2 independent entities to share the understanding of the individuals in common between the 2 datasets without sharing any personal data and without inadvertently allowing reidentification of those individuals not in common (i.e., outside of the desired intersection). Now that we have a focus, let’s evaluate the evolution of protection methods. 9