Data Categories Reference

Data Categories are labels to describe the type of data processed by your software. Data Category objects form a hierarchy: A Data Category can contain any number of children, but a given Category may only have one parent. You assign a child Category to a parent by setting the child's parent_key property. For example, the user.job_title Category is used for personally-identifiable job title information for a user.

These are most heavily used by the System and Dataset resources, where you can assign one or more data categories to each field.

Object Structure

fides_key     constrained string

A string token that uniquely identifies this Data Category. The value is a dot-separated concatenation of the fides_key values of the resource's ancestors plus a final element for this resource:

grandparent.parent.this_data_category

The final element (this_data_category) may only contain alphanumeric characters and underscores ([A-Za-z0-9_.-]). The dot character is reserved as a separator.

namestring

A UI-friendly label for the Data Category.

descriptionstring

A human-readable description of the Data Category.

parent_keystring

The fides key of the Data Category's parent.

organization_fides_keystringdefault: default_organization

The fides key of the organization to which this Data Category belongs.

Extensibility and interoperability

Data Categories in the taxonomy are designed to support common privacy regulations and standards out of the box, these include GDPR, CCPA, LGPD and ISO 19944.

You can extend the taxonomy to support your system needs. If you do this, we recommend extending from the existing class structures to ensure interoperability inside and outside your organization.

If you have suggestions for core classes that should ship with the taxonomy, please submit your requests here.

Top Level Data Categories

There are two top-level categories:

Label	Parent Key	Description
system	-	Data unique to, and under control of the system.
user	-	Data related to the user of the system.

For each top level category there can be multiple subcategories that provide richer context.

Below is a reference for all subcategories of system and user to assist with describing all data across systems.

System Data Categories

Label	Parent Key	Description
authentication	system	Data used to manage access to the system.
operations	system	Data used for system operations.

User Data Categories

Label	Parent Key	Description
user.account	user	Account creation or registration information.
user.authorization	user	Scope of permissions and access to a system.
user.behavior	user	Behavioral data about the subject.
user.biometric	user	Encoded characteristics provided by a user.
user.childrens	user	Data relating to children.
user.contact	user	Contact data collected about a user.
user.content	user	Content related to, or created by the subject.
user.demographic	user	Demographic data about a user.
user.location	user	Records of the location of a user.
user.device	user	Data related to a user's device, configuration and setting.
user.payment	user	Payment data related to user.
user.social	user	Social activity and interaction data.
user.unique_id	user	Unique identifier for a user assigned through system use.
user.telemetry	user	User identifiable measurement data from system sensors and monitoring.
user.user_sensor	user	Measurement data about a user's environment through system use.
user.workplace	user	Organization of employment.
user.sensor	user	Measurement data from sensors and monitoring systems.
user.financial	user	Payment data and financial history.
user.government_id	user	State provided identification data.
user.health_and_medical	user	Health records or individual's personal medical information.
user.name	user	User's real name.
user.criminal_history	user	Criminal records or information about the data subject.
user.privacy_preferences	user	Privacy preferences or settings set by the subject.
user.job_title	user	Professional data.
user.account.settings	user.account	Account preferences and settings.
user.account.username	user.account	Username associated with account.
user.authorization.credentials	user.authorization	Authentication credentials to a system.
user.authorization.biometric	user.authorization	Credentials for system authentication.
user.authorization.password	user.authorization	Password for system authentication.
user.behavior.browsing_history	user.behavior	Content browsing history of a user.
user.behavior.media_consumption	user.behavior	Content consumption history of the subject.
user.behavior.purchase_history	user.behavior	Purchase history of the subject.
user.behavior.search_history	user.behavior	Search history of the subject.
user.biometric.fingerprint	user.biometric	Fingerprint encoded data about a subject.
user.biometric.retinal	user.biometric	Retinal data about a subject.
user.biometric.voice	user.biometric	Voice encoded data about a subject.
user.biometric.health	user.biometric	Encoded characteristic collected about a user.
user.contact.address	user.contact	Contact address data collected about a user.
user.contact.email	user.contact	User's contact email address.
user.contact.phone_number	user.contact	User's phone number.
user.contact.url	user.contact	Subject's websites or links to social and personal profiles.
user.contact.fax_number	user.contact	Data Subject's fax number.
user.contact.organization	user.contact	Data Subject's Organization.
user.contact.address.city	user.contact.address	User's city level address data.
user.contact.address.country	user.contact.address	User's country level address data.
user.contact.address.postal_code	user.contact.address	User's postal code.
user.contact.address.state	user.contact.address	User's state level address data.
user.contact.address.street	user.contact.address	User's street level address data.
user.content.private	user.content	Private content related to, or created by the subject, not publicly available.
user.content.public	user.content	Publicly shared Content related to, or created by the subject.
user.content.self_image	user.content	Photograph or image in which subject is whole or partially recognized.
user.demographic.age_range	user.demographic	Non specific age or age-range of data subject.
user.demographic.date_of_birth	user.demographic	Date of birth of data subject.
user.demographic.gender	user.demographic	Gender of data subject.
user.demographic.language	user.demographic	Spoken or written language of subject.
user.demographic.marital_status	user.demographic	Marital status of data subject.
user.demographic.political_opinion	user.demographic	Political opinion or belief of data subject.
user.demographic.profile	user.demographic	Profile or preference information about the data subject.
user.demographic.race_ethnicity	user.demographic	Race or ethnicity of data subject.
user.demographic.religious_belief	user.demographic	Religion or religious beliefs of the data subject.
user.demographic.sexual_orientation	user.demographic	Sexual orientation of data subject.
user.device.cookie	user.device	Data related to a subject, stored within a cookie.
user.device.cookie_id	user.device	Cookie unique identification number.
user.device.device_id	user.device	Device unique identification number.
user.device.ip_address	user.device	Unique identifier related to device connection.
user.financial.bank_account	user.financial	Bank account information belonging to the subject.
user.financial.credit_card	user.financial	Credit card information belonging to the subject.
user.government_id.birth_certificate	user.government_id	State issued certificate of birth.
user.government_id.drivers_license_number	user.government_id	State issued driving identification number.
user.government_id.immigration	user.government_id	State issued immigration or residency data.
user.government_id.national_identification_number	user.government_id	State issued personal identification number.
user.government_id.passport_number	user.government_id	State issued passport data.
user.government_id.vehicle_registration	user.government_id	State issued license plate or vehicle registration data.
user.health_and_medical.genetic	user.health_and_medical	Data about the genetic makeup provided by the subject.
user.health_and_medical.insurance_beneficiary_id	user.health_and_medical	Health insurance beneficiary number of the subject.
user.health_and_medical.record_id	user.health_and_medical	Medical record identifiers belonging to a subject.
user.location.imprecise	user.location	Imprecise location derived from sensors (more than 500M).
user.location.precise	user.location	Precise location derived from sensors (less than 500M).
user.name.first	user.name	Subject's first name.
user.name.last	user.name	Subject's last, or family, name.
user.unique_id.pseudonymous	user.unique_id	A pseudonymous, or probabilistic identifier generated from other subject or device data belonging to the subject.