PII Handling Guide

What Meridian classifies as PII

• Email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses
• Government IDs (SSN, passport, driver's license)
• IP addresses stored alongside user identifiers
• Payment tokens and billing metadata
• Biometric templates and facial geometry hashes

Detection pipeline

Meridian scans structured and unstructured data stores on a configurable cadence. The regex engine runs against column names, JSON keys, and cell values. Matches are scored by confidence — high-confidence hits auto-tag the column as PII in the data catalog.

Masking and redaction

Once tagged, PII columns can be masked at query time via Meridian's proxy layer. Supported strategies: full redaction, partial masking (last-4 display), tokenization with reversible vault, and format-preserving encryption for test environments.

Access controls

Role-based policies gate who can view unmasked PII. All access is logged to the audit trail with actor, timestamp, and justification reason. Break-glass procedures require multi-party approval.

Retention and deletion

Meridian enforces TTLs on PII-bearing records. Expired data is hard-deleted from primary stores and backup snapshots within the configured grace window. Deletion receipts are cryptographically signed.