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Privacy Policy

If you have rights to pension benefits paid by PBGC, you may wish to review the Privacy Act Statement that pertains to the personal information you will be asked to supply.

If you use MyPBA, My PAA, or e-4010, you may wish to read about PBGC's Transmission and Storage of Personal Information.

All users of the PBGC website may wish to know about the Non-personal Information Collected by Online Resources.

Privacy Act Statement

When you use MyPBA, you will be asked to supply personal information such as your name, address, plan name, email address, and Social Security number. PBGC is authorized to collect and store this information pursuant to Federal Law: 29 U.S.C. §§ 1055, 1056(d)(3), 1302, 1321, 1322, 1322a, 1341, 1342 and 1350; 26 U.S.C. §§ 6103; 44 U.S.C. § 3101; and 26 C.F.R. § 301.6103(l)(2)‑3.

If you are seeking a benefit payment, you must supply the requested information so that PBGC may verify your identity and process the benefit amount to which you are entitled. Although MyPBA is the quickest and most secure method of supplying the requested information, it is not mandatory that you use MyPBA. If you do not wish to use MyPBA, please contact PBGC by telephone or through regular mail.

PBGC collects this information through MyPBA from you for the following purposes:

  • Determining your eligibility for benefits, and the amount of benefits to be paid.
  • Making benefit payments to eligible recipients.
  • Collecting benefit overpayments.
  • Communicating with you.

Accordingly, although you are not required to supply this information to PBGC, your decision to not provide PBGC with this information may result in the delay or non-processing of your benefit.

PBGC may share the information you provide through MyPBA only in limited circumstances, pursuant to PBGC's System of Records Notice (SORN) PBGC-6.

Transmission and Storage of Personal Information

PBGC receives and stores personal identifying and other information submitted by you when you register and use PBGC's online services for workers and retirees (MyPBA) and for practitioners (My PAA and e-4010). The security of the information you input for MyPBA is protected during transmission using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypting software. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information, PBGC has put in place physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to protect the information collected online. PBGC keeps a log of all transactions and data that you submit via the MyPBA application in order to (1) provide efficient customer service; (2) provide adequate audit records, and (3) process your data transactions or requests.

PBGC may disclose personal information only if PBGC is required to do so by law or if PBGC in good faith believes that such action is necessary to: (1) comply with the law or with legal process; (2) protect and defend its rights and property; (3) protect against misuse or unauthorized use of MyPBA; or (4) protect the personal safety or property of its users or the public (among other things, this means that if you provide false information or attempt to pose as someone else, information about you may be disclosed as part of any investigation into your actions).

Some participants have asked whether, instead of using MyPBA, they may send requested information to PBGC via email. Although this is permissible, we do not recommend the use of email for sending personal information such as Social Security Number, bank account number, home phone number, or address. Rather, if you do not wish to use MyPBA, we suggest that you contact PBGC by telephone or regular mail. See the PBGC Contact Information page for addresses and telephone numbers.

Non-Personal Information Collected by PBGC Online Resources

System Management: As part of system management, PBGC uses various software tools and computing methods to insure this site is operating in an optimum manner and to identify what information is of the most and least interest to its users. We do not collect or sell information about you for commercial purposes. Among the information that currently is collected by PBGC for system management are:

  • The name of the domain from which you access the Internet (for example, www.google.com);
  • The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;
  • The date and time you access our site;
  • The Internet address of the Web site from which linked directly to our site;
  • The pages and files you access on this site.

Please note that none of this information identifies you personally in any way.

Site Security

For security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, PBGC also employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. No attempts are made to identify individual users unless that user chooses to submit personal information, or illegal behavior is suspected. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986, the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996, or other such laws as may apply.

Cookies

Cookies are small data files sent to your computer by websites you visit. Cookies store information about the type of computer you use to access the website. There are two types of cookies: session and persistent. Session cookies expire once the user closes the browser. Persistent cookies, however, remain on your system for an extended period of time.

PBGC uses both session cookies and persistent cookies. It does not use either type of cookie to track, collect, or store personally identifiable information.

The PBGC website including its online services for workers and retirees (MyPBA) and for practitioners (My PAA and e-4010) use session cookies to recognize registered users and assist them in navigating the applications in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

We use persistent cookies to enable third-party companies to differentiate between new and returning visitors to our online resources. Information about your use of the site is anonymously tabulated with information collected from other visitors. This helps PBGC understand how visitors use its website and make improvements to the website. The information will be used only by PBGC. PBGC maintains a list of third-party companies involved with the PBGC website.

PBGC cookies do not track your activity at other websites. Your computer accepts and holds persistent cookies between visits to PBGC.gov until they expire after two years. Your computer's acceptance of persistent cookies also blocks some repeated invitations to answer survey questions. The persistent cookie that blocks repeated survey invitations expires in not more than 180 days.

OMB Memo 10-22 Guidance defines our use of persistent cookies as "Usage Tier 2-Multi-session without Personally Identifiable Information (PII)." The policy says, "This tier encompasses any use of multi-session Web measurement and customization technologies when no PII is collected."

You do not have to accept all cookies from us, but if you choose not to, some of the functions on our sites may not be available to you. However, if you have questions or comments, or would like to contact PBGC without using PBGC's online services, you can call the Customer Contact Center at 1-800-400-7242 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Instructions for opting out of the use of persistent cookies can be found at http//www.usa.gov/optout_instructions.shtml. Opting-out does not affect users' ability to access comparable information or services from PBGC. To comment on the usability of the PBGC website, you may send email to the PBGC Webmaster: webmaster@pbgc.gov.

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