What is the difference between raw data, factual data, and personal data?

Raw data are meaningless character sequences. They become personal data the moment they can be linked back to an identifiable person.

* Decision path distinguishing raw, factual, and personal data. *

Data protection law cares about one critical boundary: can this data be traced to a specific person?

Three levels of data:

1. Raw data (Rohdaten): Unprocessed sequences of characters with no context or interpretation. Just bits and bytes.

2. Factual data (Sachdaten): Information about things, not people. For example, "a house in Zurich" is factual data. It has no personal reference, the person is neither identified nor identifiable.

3. Personal data (Personendaten): Information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. This is where data protection law kicks in.

The tricky middle ground: Data that seems factual can become personal through linkage. A property listed by address might be factual data. But if a registry connects that address to an owner's name, it becomes personal data. A key with a number is anonymous until a list maps numbers to names.

Why this matters: The boundary is not fixed. Context determines whether data is personal. As more datasets become linked, more "anonymous" data becomes personal data.

Go deeper:

• Information privacy (Wikipedia) — how the personal/non-personal boundary turns on identifiability.