U.S. Senate Passes Bill to Protect Transferee Sensitive Data

Chamber unanimously passes bill to protect sensitive personal data of transferees and military personnel shipping their household goods.

On 9 March, the U.S. Senate passed under unanimous consent the Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act (S. 758) which Senators Steve Daines (R-MT), Gary Peters (D-MI) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Roger Marshall (R-KS) had reintroduced earlier in the day. S. 758 would help protect the sensitive personal data of transferees and military personnel shipping their household goods to the U.S. Worldwide ERC® has been actively involved with the reintroduction of the bill and sent letters of support to senators Daines, Peters, Stabenow, and Marshall.

 “Worldwide ERC® greatly appreciates the leadership of senators Daines, Peters, Stabenow, and Marshall  to ensure that the sensitive personal data of employees and our service members being relocated to the U.S. or returning home from abroad is safe from being posted online and vulnerable to potential illegal activity”, said Worldwide ERC® President and CEO Lynn Shotwell.

 The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is required to sell the manifest data on vessel shipments into the U.S. to data brokerage firms that post the information online to paid subscribers. Making public the personally identifiable information (PII) of the transferee including military personnel exposes them to identity theft, fraud and unwanted solicitations.

While it is not the intent of the CBP to release the sensitive data of individuals, the manifests currently provided to data brokers often includes the personally identifiable information of transferees and military personnel shipping household goods the U.S. The data brokers post the manifest information online to provide an analysis and trends on shipments not intending to expose the PII of transferees.

For the past five years, Worldwide ERC® along with the American Trucking Association and the International Association of Movers (IAM) and more recently the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and Senior Executives Association, have supported efforts to protect the PII of military personnel and transferees. The Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act would require the Secretary of the Treasury to remove the PII of individuals before making the manifests available to data brokers. A copy of the press release by senators Daines, Peters, Stabenow, and Marshall on introduction of the bill can be accessed here.

Tristan North is the Government Affairs Advisor for Worldwide ERC®