CUNA Mutual Group issued the following announcement on Nov. 19.
WASHINGTON—NAFCU has joined ten other trade associations representing servicemembers, foreign service officers, federal employees, Realtors and moving companies in sending a letter to Senate leadership urging them to advance S.998, the Moving Americans' Privacy Protection Act, which would help protect personal information of American servicemembers and foreign service personnel who are moving back into the United States from overseas.
Currently, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) collects documentation and personally identifiable information (PII), such as Social Security numbers and passport data, on international moves into the United States in an effort to protect Americans from nefarious cargo and inbound shipments. However, the CBP is allowed by congressional statute to sell this information to third-party data brokers to build statistical information on imports and exports, even though those manifests, when sold by CBP may contain PII of individuals moving back to the United States.
‘Poses Problems’
Most international household goods moves are for military deployments, foreign service assignments, and government employees. This poses problems for American servicemembers and foreign service personnel, who represent a large portion of international relocations, as third-party data brokers have in some cases inadvertently released individuals' PII publicly, making them a target for identity thieves, NAFCU said.
While there is an opt-out process, the process is not clear and is difficult to comply with. The legislation, introduced by Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT) and Gary Peters (D-MI) directs the CBP to scrub any PII before it is sold, enhancing the safety of servicemembers, foreign service officers, and other federal employees. A House version of the bill (H.R. 4403) unanimously passed the chamber in April.
Original source can be found here.
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