Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act

Mr. President, in recent years the American people have lost trust in the Federal government to keep our personally identifiable information, or PII, secure. In June of 2015 the Office of Personnel Management was infiltrated with a major cyber breach, affecting more than 22 million current and former federal employees,

including myself. In January of 2016, another nearly half a million Americans had their social security numbers stolen when the Internal Revenue Service was hacked.

I spent 28 years in the private sector, 12 years with a global cloud computing company. We faced cyber threats daily, and our customers expected security of their data. We delivered and not once was our data compromised. And we certainly did not give it out voluntarily. When there is an opportunity to protect our PII, we need to act on it and begin to rebuild trust with the American people.

In 1984, the public disclosure of certain manifest information was required of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The original intent was to increase competition, to facilitate better public analysis of import trends, and to allow port authorities and transportation companies to more easily identify potential customers and changes in their industries. However, in recent years, PII of relocating individuals, bringing their home goods back to the United States, has been released, enabling identity theft, credit card fraud, and unwanted solicitations.

CBP does offer a process for consumers of shipping services to make their information confidential. However, these forms typical take two months to process and are often processed after the individual has moved.

That is why I am introducing the Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act. This legislation will simply require CBP to remove personally identifiable information from vessel manifest sheets before making them available for public disclosure. I believe the default should be to protect peoples' privacy and automatically remove this personal information, rather than requiring citizens to make a request and hope the paperwork is processed in time.

I want to thank Senator Peters for being an original cosponsor of this bill. I ask my Senate colleagues to join us in support of this important legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, in recent years the American people have lost trust in the Federal government to keep our personally identifiable information, or PII, secure. In June of 2015 the Office of Personnel Management was infiltrated with a major cyber breach, affecting more than 22 million current and former federal employees,

including myself. In January of 2016, another nearly half a million Americans had their social security numbers stolen when the Internal Revenue Service was hacked.

I spent 28 years in the private sector, 12 years with a global cloud computing company. We faced cyber threats daily, and our customers expected security of their data. We delivered and not once was our data compromised. And we certainly did not give it out voluntarily. When there is an opportunity to protect our PII, we need to act on it and begin to rebuild trust with the American people.

In 1984, the public disclosure of certain manifest information was required of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The original intent was to increase competition, to facilitate better public analysis of import trends, and to allow port authorities and transportation companies to more easily identify potential customers and changes in their industries. However, in recent years, PII of relocating individuals, bringing their home goods back to the United States, has been released, enabling identity theft, credit card fraud, and unwanted solicitations.

CBP does offer a process for consumers of shipping services to make their information confidential. However, these forms typical take two months to process and are often processed after the individual has moved.

That is why I am introducing the Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act. This legislation will simply require CBP to remove personally identifiable information from vessel manifest sheets before making them available for public disclosure. I believe the default should be to protect peoples' privacy and automatically remove this personal information, rather than requiring citizens to make a request and hope the paperwork is processed in time.

I want to thank Senator Peters for being an original cosponsor of this bill. I ask my Senate colleagues to join us in support of this important legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.