Privacy Characteristics of Attributes
If you're using Ethnio Pool, and you want to mark certain attributes of participants as PII or PHI in order to mask that column or attribute for all collaborators who login to Ethnio, you can do that from Pool > Data > Attributes.
Click on any attribute to access the PII & PHI settings:
How PII & PHI is masked in Ethnio
Once you've marked an attribute like gender as PII or PHI, you can then use our user access and permissions model to define how certain roles or users of Ethnio can not see those attributes or columns: https://help.ethn.io/article/289-team-management-permissions-and-roles
About PII: Personally Identifiable Information
If you're using Ethnio, you're probably extremely familiar with PII, but it's worth clarifying that PII refers to any data that could potentially identify a specific individual, either directly or indirectly. Common examples include:
- Full name
- Home address
- Email address
- Phone number
- Gender
- Date of birth
- ZIP code
Essentially, if it can single someone out (alone or with other info), it’s PII.
About PHI – Protected Health Information
PHI is a subset of PII, specifically tied to healthcare and medical records. It refers to any individually identifiable health information that’s created, received, stored, or transmitted by a covered entity (like a hospital, clinic, insurance company, or healthcare provider). Examples include:
- Medical records or history
- Lab test results
- Prescription details
- Health insurance information
- Medical billing data
- Any combination of health data plus an identifier (like name, date of birth, or medical record number)
PHI is protected under HIPAA in the U.S.