In the midst of an overwhelming demand for renewing passports ahead of spring and summer travels abroad, a Chicagoan had her private information exposed by the U.S. Department of State, including her date of birth, social security number and a copy of her birth certificate.
The historic demand for passport services, and the backlog facing State Department offices, may have led to the critical error uncovered by NBC 5 Responds.
Meredith Adler talked to NBC 5 earlier this year when she, like many travelers, was facing the hurdle of getting her passport renewed in time for a trip out of the country.
Adler quickly learned getting an appointment in Chicago was going to be tough. She said a State Department representative told her getting a local appointment would be like “winning the lottery.”
Left scrambling, Adler considered herself lucky when she was able to get an appointment at a State Department office in Detroit, Michigan, just in time for her vacation.
“I ended up getting an appointment,” Adler said. “I went to Detroit and they mailed me my passport a couple days later, so I got it in time for my trip, which was great.”
But when she returned home from out of the country, she had a voicemail waiting for her that took her by surprise.
“It was a number from Minnesota,” Adler said. “They were letting me know that they had received my passport documents.”
The voice on the other line, a couple from Minnesota that Adler had no connections to, said they had a copy of Meredith’s passport application, which included her name, date-of-birth, social security number and travel plans. They also had a copy of Adler’s birth certificate.
The couple said they too had traveled to Detroit, Michigan, recently to renew their passport, but somehow ended up with Adler’s documentation. Luckily, the couple offered to shred the documents, but Adler still felt worried.
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“I was like, ‘Wait, what is this? This is really weird,’" Adler recounted. “And then a little panicked because I was like, ‘Okay, this guy has all my sensitive information.’”
It’s important to note how we got here, when it comes to passport services and the recent backlog, hitting historic levels.
When international travel tanked during the pandemic, the State Department said it re-assigned, or laid off its passport staff.
But today, it says it's trying to increase Consular Affairs staff and fast, given that there are more U.S. citizens traveling abroad than ever before.
Recently, the State Department said it’s receiving an estimated 500,000 applications each week, and that’s leading to a stress test of sorts on offices across the country, like the one in Detroit, Michigan, where some applicants have been redirected.
Even though demand is high, Adler still couldn’t make sense of how a random couple received her private information.
“It was kind of shocking to me that an agency that does this so often, that [my information] would be mishandled,” Adler told NBC 5.
NBC 5 Responds contacted the State Department to find out what happened.
A spokesperson said it’s “committed to protecting U.S. citizens’ personal information,” and that “immediately after becoming aware of the incident,” State Department personnel, “reviewed the respective facility’s data security protocols.”
A spokesperson told NBC 5 by email, “Following the review, we focused on identifying any systemic vulnerabilities and measures to mitigate future potential harm. Our review found this to be an isolated incident.”
“Passport agency customer service managers notified the affected applicants to remediate the situation and offered free credit monitoring and identity protection services,” the State Department said. “We are not aware of this specific incident being related to any other U.S. government data breach.”
Adler feels the incident is an example of why passport processing may be in need of modernizing.
“Everything is done by pen and paper, and I just would think that there has to be a way to do this more effectively online,” Adler said.
With the high demand for passport renewals, travel experts say if you’re planning to travel outside of the United States in the next year, check your expiration date now and start the process of renewing your passport early.
With the backlog impacting so many travelers, expert advice is to wait to book any flights or hotel rooms until you have your renewed passport in-hand, ensuring that you’ll be able to fly.
