LOS ANGELES _ Millions of disaster victims _ including thousands of those hit by California wildfires _ had personally identifiable information compromised when they applied for housing relief with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, authorities said Friday.
The federal Office of Inspector General said the information was included in applications hurricane and wildfire victims submitted to FEMA's Transitional Sheltering Assistance program for housing assistance and was passed onto vendors without some of it being removed.
"During our audit ... we determined that FEMA violated the Privacy Act of 1974 and Department of Homeland Security policy by releasing (personally identifiable information) of 2.3 million survivors of Hurricane Harvey, Irma and Maria and the California wildfires in 2017," the March 15 memo stated.
The information included applicants' names, last four digits of their Social Security numbers, home addresses and bank account and routing numbers.
A series of devastating wildfire hit across California in 2017, destroying thousands of homes and killing dozens. Among the hardest hit was Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
