Dependent verification documents and forms that contain personal information such as Social Security numbers, credit card or bank account numbers, medical information, or any other form of PII should not be handled in email. This is covered in the following IT policies:
Remember, PII is any information about an individual maintained by an agency, including (1) any information that can be used to distinguish or trace a specific individual’s identity, such as name, Social Security number, date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, or biometric records; and (2) any other information that is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as medical, educational, financial, and employment information. An easy way to determine if personal information is PII is if it can be used to substantially harm, embarrass, defraud, or harass an individual.
If you’ve used to scan-to-email function of a device to send yourself tax forms, birth certificates, custodial records, or documents that may contain personal information, please review your inbox, sent items, and deleted items folders and remove these files immediately. Doing so will safeguard this information from exposure in the event that your computer or email account is inappropriately accessed in the future.