personenbezogenen

Personenbezogenen is the attributive form of the German adjective personenbezogen, meaning person-related or pertaining to a person. In practice it is most often seen in phrases such as personenbezogene Daten, which refers to data that can identify a natural person or is linked to one. The term is central in privacy and data protection contexts in German-speaking regions, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Germany’s Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (BDSG).

Personal data, or personenbezogene Daten, are information that relates to an identified or identifiable person. The use of the term emphasizes that the data require specific safeguards and lawful processing conditions. Under GDPR, the processing of personal data generally requires a lawful basis, such as consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interests, public task, or legitimate interests, along with principles like transparency, purpose limitation, and data minimization.

Examples of personenbezogene Daten include names, addresses, email addresses, identification numbers, and financial details. Indirect identifiers, such as IP addresses, location data, or online identifiers when linkable to a person, can also be personal data. Data that has been anonymized or aggregated so that individuals are no longer identifiable is not considered personenbezogene Daten.

The term is widely used in privacy notices, data inventories, and risk assessments, as well as in references to personal attributes (personenbezogene Merkmale). Etymologically, it combines Person with bezogen (related to). The concept underpins the legal framework for protecting individual privacy in data processing activities.