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Trainers review PII rules and redaction methods for grant documentation
Summary
Deloitte presenters reviewed what constitutes personally identifiable information under North Carolina practice and advised concrete steps for redaction and secure storage of documents used to support grant expenses.
Deloitte presenters devoted a portion of the webinar to personally identifiable information (PII) and secure handling of supporting documentation. Ramon Alemar said common PII examples include Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, driver’s license or state ID numbers, passport numbers, biometric data and digital signatures, and that combinations of name plus another identifier also qualify as PII.
Presenters explained practical redaction methods. The recommended approach for digital documents is to use Adobe Acrobat Pro’s redaction tools and to “sanitize” the file so redacted content cannot be recovered. For system‑generated reports, presenters advised selecting only non‑PII fields when configuring automated exports. If digital redaction is not available, presenters described removing entire columns from export files.
Presenters warned that simple visual masking is not sufficient. Ramon Alemar explained that placing a black shape over text in Word or using a shape on top of a PDF is not redaction because the underlying text can be recovered; true redaction must remove the data. For physical documents, presenters said black markers or cutting the page can be used but advised verifying that the redaction cannot be read when the paper is held to light.
The presenters tied PII practices to audit readiness: secure storage (locked filing rooms or controlled SharePoint libraries), a record retrieval log for physical files, and limiting access to authorized personnel help protect individuals and institutions and support compliance.
