Why is PII masking considered a non-negotiable step in preparing datasets for public or commercial machine learning models?

PII masking is the process of obscuring Personally Identifiable Information—such as names, social security numbers, or email addresses—within a dataset so that specific individuals cannot be identified. This step is non-negotiable because it prevents the accidental leakage of private data, ensuring that machine learning models do not memorize and inadvertently regurgitate sensitive facts about real people....