Payment card industry

Alright, you know when you buy something in a store or online and you give the cashier or the website your mom or dad's credit card to pay for it? Well, there are a lot of rules and people in charge of making sure that when you use that card, your mom or dad's personal and financial information is safe and secure.

These rules and people are part of what we call the Payment Card Industry, or PCI for short. They make sure that everybody who handles credit card information does it in a safe and responsible way, including the stores and websites where you use the cards as well as the companies that process the transactions and the banks that issue the cards.

They come up with standards and guidelines for how to protect cardholder data, like making sure all the computers and software used to process card transactions are up-to-date and secure, and that people who handle this information are trained on how to keep it safe.

They also have people who inspect and check to make sure that everyone is following the rules, and that they're doing everything they can to keep your information safe so that you can continue to use your mom or dad's card to buy toys and ice creams without worrying about bad guys getting hold of your personal information.