{"id":3244,"date":"2026-06-16T16:58:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/?page_id=3244"},"modified":"2026-06-16T17:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:18:16","slug":"individually-identifying-information-hipaa","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/research-compliance\/human-research-protection-program\/resources-faqs\/individually-identifying-information-hipaa\/","title":{"rendered":"Individually Identifying Information &#8211; HIPAA"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"nau-block nau-block-left-nav-top-bound\">\n    \t<button id=\"left-nav-toggle-btn\" onclick=\"toggleNav();\">\n\t\tON THIS PAGE \n\t\t<i id=\"chevron-icon\" class=\"fas fa-solid fa-chevron-down\"><\/i>\n\t<\/button>\n\t<div id=\"left-nav-menu-track\">\n\t\t<div id=\"left-nav-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"rfi-above-anchor-tags\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ri-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/nau.edu\/admissions\/request-information\/\" id=\"request-info\" class=\"btn bg-true-blue left-nav-menu-bottom-button display-mobile\">Request info&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div id=\"left-nav-menu\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"menu-section menu-section-links\"><h6 class=\"hidden-mobile left-nav-list-header\">ON THIS PAGE<\/h6><ul class=\"left-nav-menu-list left-nav-automatic on-this-page\"><\/ul><div class=\"ri-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nau.edu\/admissions\/request-information\/\" id=\"request-info\" class=\"btn bg-true-blue left-nav-menu-bottom-button display-mobile\">Request info&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/a><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"menu-section backcolor\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHOW CAN WE HELP?\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"responsive-icons\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"tel:928-523-9551\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/themes\/nau-marketing-2021\/img\/icon-phone.svg\" alt=\"Telephone:\"> 928-523-9551<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"mailto:IRB@nau.edu\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/themes\/nau-marketing-2021\/img\/icon-email.svg\" alt=\"Email:\"><span class=\"left-nav-email\"> IRB&#8203;@nau.edu <\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<section class=\"nau-block left-nav-section\"><header class=\"entry-header\"><div class=\"breadcrumb\"><ol class=\"breadcrumbs\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/stage.in.nau.edu\">IN<\/a><span class=\"breadcrumb-chevron\" aria-hidden=\"true\">&gt;<\/span><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\">NAU Research<\/a><span class=\"breadcrumb-chevron\" aria-hidden=\"true\">&gt;<\/span><\/li><li class=\"current\">Pages<\/li><\/ol><\/div><h1 class=\"entry-title text-left \">Individually Identifying Information &#8211; HIPAA<\/h1><hr class=\"h1-hr  text-left \" role=\"none\"><\/header><!-- .entry-header --><\/section><!-- <section class=\"nau-block left-nav-section grid-md-12\">\n    <header class=\"entry-header\">\n        <h1 class=\"entry-title text-left \" tabindex=\"0\" id=\"h1-first\">Dummy H1<\/h1>\n        <hr class=\"h1-hr  text-left \" role=\"none\">\n    <\/header>\n<\/section> -->\n\n<section class=\"nau-block left-nav-section grid-md-12\">\n    <div class=\"page-content\">\n        \n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The guidance below explains individually identifiable information under HIPAA, including what data may be considered identifiable and the responsibilities researchers have when collecting, using, storing, and sharing protected health information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Names\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All geographic subdivisions smaller than a State, including street address, city, county, precinct, zip code, and their equivalent geocodes, <strong>except <\/strong>for the initial three digits of a zip code if, according to the current publicly available data from the Bureau of the Census: The geographic unit formed by combining all zip codes with the same three initial digits contains more than 20,000 people; and\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The initial three digits of a zip code for all such geographic units containing 20,000 or fewer people is changed to 000.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All elements of dates (except year) for dates directly related to an individual, including birth date, admission date, discharge date, date of death; and all ages over 89 and all elements of dates (including year) indicative of such age, <strong>except <\/strong>that such ages and elements may be aggregated into a single category of \u201c90 or older.\u201d\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Telephone numbers\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fax numbers\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Email addresses\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Social security numbers\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Medical record numbers\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Health plan beneficiary numbers\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Account numbers\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Certificate\/license numbers\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Vehicle identifiers and serial numbers, including license plate numbers\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Device identifiers and serial numbers\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Web Universal Resource Locators (URLs)\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Internet Protocol (IP) address numbers\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Biometric identifiers, including finger and voice prints\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Full face photographic images and any comparable images\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Any other unique identifying number, characteristic, or code, <strong>except <\/strong>as permitted by compliant re-identification (164.514 c)\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Information that could be used alone or in combination with other information to identify an individual who is a subject of the information.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<div class=\"nau-block nau-block-left-nav-bottom-bound\">\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":3254,"parent":2605,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ring_central_script_selection":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3244","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3244"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3257,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3244\/revisions\/3257"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}