The Small Business Administration has possibly exhibited gross negligence of privacy violation by exposing the information of those who received the PPP loan. In a gun violence case that recently shocked Chicago, a 7-year-old girl was killed, which could have been the result of information exposed from this violation of privacy.
It is alleged that the father of Jaslyn Adams, Jontae Adams, received a PPP loan for his business. Therefore, his information was easily accessible to his enemies to find online. It is rumored, they used this information to hunt the victim, target him at a McDonald’s, and open fire upon him, wounding him and murdering his daughter.
Since July 2020, the SBA has published PPP loan recipient data online. However, this information was limited to those recipients over $150,000. It has come to our attention that all PPP loan recipients’ information is being furnished online. Even those who received less than $150,000 loan. It is true that we want to see transparency in PPP since funding derives from tax dollars going to businesses. Arash Fayz, the Founder and Executive Director at LA Tutors 123, a test prep and private tutoring company based in Los Angeles says, “Understandably, there needs to be some transparency when it comes to how PPP funds were distributed, but this can be achieved without having personal information such as home addresses and personal phone numbers released to the public.”
The issue here is for smaller businesses. Especially for sole proprietors that do not have a business office address, this is a privacy and security risk. Therefore their home addresses are exposed on the internet. Business owner Arash Fayz claims, “Releasing personal information for small business owners and sole proprietors is an unconscionable violation of privacy.” Harriet Chan, the Co-founder of CocoFinder, a people-search site says, “I argue that the SBA should find an alternative way of enhancing transparency by revealing information that is not detrimental to people’s safety and privacy. It should give special consideration to small business owners like me who use home addresses for their business.”
There is a website (which we will not link to or mention) that makes this information easily searchable online and accessible. It displays the recipient’s:
- Full name
- Full address
- Amounts received
- Years in business
- Jobs reported (as saved)
- Loan number
- Date received
- Bank which funded
- Plus more pertinent information.
This is absolutely too much private information that is open to the public. There are far more implications that can come from this data breach…
PPP Loan Privacy Violation & Safety Concerns
With sensitive information comes the responsibility to protect it from bad actors. This publicly exposed private information has the potential to find its way into people-search databases. And if you have ever dealt with these sites, you know how cumbersome it can be to have your personal information removed. If the SBA is inadvertently responsible for the data breach via PPP loans, it makes the situation even worse for recipients.
John Bourscheid, the Co-founder of Removaly, an online data removal tool, gives a stark anecdote, “Picture it, you diligently and tirelessly spend the necessary time scrubbing your personal information from the Internet as a way to ensure an abusive partner or stalker does not have access to your address, phone number, or other PII (personally identifiable information).” Bourscheid concludes the narrative, “You move and start a small business in a different town. COVID hits, and you need a PPP loan to stay afloat. Next thing you know, your information is back on these people-search websites and filtering through databases and data broker lists. It’s a vicious cycle that we have extensive personal experience in.”
Harriet Chan explains, “If we were among the PPP loan recipients and my home address was published online for all to see, I would be concerned about my safety. In recent times, there have been several hits on businesses around [my] area. Money stolen at gunpoint, life threats, and burglary instances. Some of the culprits admit to having searched some of their targets online.”
Currently, there is no universal set of laws governing internet privacy. However, states like California passed CCPA laws (California Consumer Privacy Act) that offer their residents recourse for removing personal information online. Stronger laws exist in Europe with GDPR laws (General Data Protection Regulation.) John Bourscheid explains, “Data rights and privacy are crucial, especially somewhere like the US where we don’t have the same ‘Right to be Forgotten’ laws [in] places such as Europe are privy to. Knowing that those handling the data associated with PPP lending may be responsible for reintroducing private data is abhorrent.”
If you do need help having your personal information removed from the internet, services like Removaly offers free guides to help you help yourself with removal. Their automated service launches this summer.
We did not want to include the search tool which exposes PPP loan recipient information in an easy search. Nor did we want to link to the SBA’s tools. We would hope they would abolish this information as it is gross negligence for the privacy and safety of recipients.
We reached out to the SBA and the online search tool, we have not received a response at the time of publishing this article.
If you agree or disagree with this PPP loan privacy violation assessment, let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
