title: MySQL and Storing encrypted User Data
body: <p>I have a lot of User Data that I will be storing on a compliant database server.</p>
  
  <p>Right now there are about 10 different iterations of data that I will be storing but in time it could be in the hundreds. </p>
  
  <p>Data Usually looks like this, give or take 50 other different rows of data:</p>
  
  <pre><code>ID          INT (10)
  Name        VARCHAR (40)
  Address     VARCHAR (65)
  City        VARCHAR (40)
  State       VARCHAR (2)
  Zip         VARCHAR (5)
  Birthdate   INT (11)
  SSN         VARCHAR (11)
  
  etc.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My question isn't necessarily about encrypting the data but the most practical way at storing and retrieving the data.</p>
  
  <p>Right now I have 10 different tables for 10 different classes of data that I am storing. In the next 6 months, this could grow to 100 or even a 1,000 different tables.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>Would it be a better idea to store all of this data in a JSON array and store it in a blob since the rows of data will not always be the same?</p></li>
  <li><p>Or should I keep all the data in it's individual columns and encrypt the columns separately?</p></li>
  <li><p>Or something else entirely</p></li>
  </ul>