PHI

Protected Health Information

Health-related PII regulated under HIPAA.

When you'd see it: Healthcare and any product touching health data. PHI is the category HIPAA protects.

Why it matters: PHI is health information tied to an individual, and HIPAA tightly controls how it is stored, shared, and secured. If your product handles PHI, it pulls you into HIPAA's full compliance regime.

Common mistakes: Assuming only obvious medical data is PHI. Identifiers tied to a health context, like names, dates, or device IDs, can also be PHI under HIPAA.