{ "model": { "rank": 13189, "code": "thing-q3702971", "model_id": "vr.tr.personal-data", "name": "personal data", "purpose": "Let an agent explain what counts as personal data, individual rights and organisational duties in general terms, help people exercise their rights and respond to breaches, and refuse to expose or compile personal data about individuals.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.QLT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q3702971/", "tier": 2, "score": 38, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "deed of change of name", "personally identifiable information", "sensitive personal data", "catamnesis", "protected health information", "biometric identifier", "criminal record", "Kundschaftsbriefe", "national identification number", "login", "social profiling", "Brazilian identity card", "extended certificate of good conduct", "European Certificate of Good Conduct", "personal identification number", "registration number of the taxpayer’s account card", "Fayda Digital ID", "CPR number", "PESEL number", "Personal Identification Number", "Social Security number", "Fødselsnummer (Norway)" ], "aliasCount": 22, "merged": 23, "knownIn": 38, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q3702971", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3702971", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T14:03:06Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q3702971", "registryId": "vr.tr.personal-data", "name": "personal data", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.QLT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q3702971/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.personal-data", "name": "personal data", "purpose": "Let an agent explain what counts as personal data, individual rights and organisational duties in general terms, help people exercise their rights and respond to breaches, and refuse to expose or compile personal data about individuals.", "definition": "Any information relating to an identified or identifiable living person, such as names, identification numbers, location data, online identifiers and factors specific to a person, including special categories such as health, biometric and genetic data; called personally identifiable information in some jurisdictions and protected by data protection law.", "what_it_is_for": "Protecting privacy and governing data use.", "affordances": [ "decide whether information is personal data", "exercise rights such as access and erasure", "respond to a data breach", "apply data minimisation in projects" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Relates to an identifiable person", "Includes indirect identifiers", "Special categories need extra protection", "Regulated by law" ], "appearance": "Not physical; records, files, databases and online identifiers about people.", "visual_identification": [ "Names, IDs, locations, identifiers", "Special categories such as health data", "Truly anonymous data falls outside personal data rules" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "identity and contact data", "online identifiers and location data", "special category data", "biometric and genetic data", "protected health information" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "private data", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is protected by", "target": "data protection law", "why": "law" }, { "relation": "includes", "target": "biometric identifier", "why": "example" }, { "relation": "is held in", "target": "archives", "why": "with safeguards" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "EU General Data Protection Regulation", "Council of Europe Convention 108+", "Sector laws such as HIPAA" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Data breaches and identity theft", "Doxxing and stalking", "Re-identification of pseudonymised data" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "scope", "name": "Scope", "description": "What counts.", "rationale": "Definitions matter.", "layers": [ { "id": "test", "name": "Test", "description": "Is it personal data.", "findings": [ { "id": "test-finding", "name": "Test", "description": "Identifiability.", "questions": [ { "text": "Could this information identify a person directly or indirectly?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Is it anonymous or only pseudonymised?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "special", "name": "Special", "description": "Sensitive categories.", "findings": [ { "id": "special-finding", "name": "Special", "description": "Special categories.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does it include health, biometric, genetic or other special category data?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which extra conditions apply?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "rights", "name": "Rights", "description": "Individual rights.", "rationale": "People have rights.", "layers": [ { "id": "access", "name": "Access", "description": "Access requests.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-finding", "name": "Access", "description": "Access requests.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can someone request a copy of their personal data from an organisation?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "What deadline applies?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "erasure", "name": "Erasure", "description": "Deletion and objection.", "findings": [ { "id": "erasure-finding", "name": "Erasure", "description": "Erasure and objection.", "questions": [ { "text": "When can someone ask for their data to be deleted or stop being processed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How can a complaint be made to the regulator?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "breach", "name": "Breach", "description": "Data breaches.", "rationale": "Act quickly.", "layers": [ { "id": "victim", "name": "Victim", "description": "Affected people.", "findings": [ { "id": "victim-finding", "name": "Victim", "description": "Affected people.", "questions": [ { "text": "Has the person been told their data was exposed in a breach?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which steps protect them, such as changing passwords and alerting their bank?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "organisation", "name": "Organisation", "description": "Duties.", "findings": [ { "id": "organisation-finding", "name": "Organisation", "description": "Organisational duties.", "questions": [ { "text": "When must an organisation notify the regulator and individuals of a breach?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Who is the data protection officer?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "limits", "name": "Limits", "description": "Agent conduct.", "rationale": "No exposure of individuals.", "layers": [ { "id": "doxxing", "name": "Doxxing", "description": "Exposing people.", "findings": [ { "id": "doxxing-finding", "name": "Doxxing", "description": "Doxxing.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the request seek to find or compile personal data about a private person?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "How should the agent decline?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "design", "name": "Design", "description": "Privacy by design.", "findings": [ { "id": "design-finding", "name": "Design", "description": "Privacy by design.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can this project minimise personal data and assess risks?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Is a data protection impact assessment required?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should special categories be separate entries?", "How should national laws be linked?", "How should re-identification risks be recorded?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a personal data, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain what counts as personal data, individual rights and organisational duties in general terms, help people exercise their rights and respond to breaches, and refuse to expose or compile personal data about individuals.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: deed of change of name, personally identifiable information, sensitive personal data, catamnesis, protected health information, biometric identifier, criminal record, Kundschaftsbriefe, national identification number, login, social profiling, Brazilian identity card.", "23 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 38 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a personal data, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "deed of change of name", "personally identifiable information", "sensitive personal data", "catamnesis", "protected health information", "biometric identifier", "criminal record", "Kundschaftsbriefe", "national identification number", "login", "social profiling", "Brazilian identity card" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 38 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 23 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one personal data from another, and a personal data from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a personal data, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a personal data, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a personal data is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a personal data, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a personal data, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a personal data is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a personal data sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a personal data, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a personal data, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a personal data is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a personal data from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a personal data, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a personal data, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a personal data is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a personal data passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a personal data between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a personal data, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a personal data, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a personal data is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a personal data, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a personal data is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a personal data, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a personal data, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a personal data is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What personal data is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of personal data are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is personal data operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of personal data and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of personal data?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as personal data?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a personal data came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a personal data and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a personal data, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a personal data, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a personal data is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a personal data is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a personal data, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a personal data, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a personal data is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }