Protecting Members’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

TRS and Reporting Employers (REs) share the responsibility of protecting our members’ Personally Identifiable Information.

PII includes, but is not limited to, the following: first name or first initial and last name combined with one or more of the following data elements: social security number, date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, driver’s license number, state identification card number, passport number, financial account number, or other unique identifying number, characteristic, or code.

PII also encompasses any other information that TRS determines could be used to identify an individual, including data derived from records of individual TRS participants. This includes the TRS Participant ID (PID).

If your RE needs to transmit documentation containing member PII to TRS for updating a demographic record, it must be sent in a secured format. TRS reporting coaches can provide a link for sending documents securely via encrypted email.

Please do not send member PII to TRS unless it is requested by your coach, and you have access to a secure delivery method provided by TRS or your employers’ IT department. This includes screenshots of RE Portal screens. If a record won’t save due to an error, and an RE coach requests a screenshot, please send it securely or request a secure message from your coach.

To summarize:

• Do not send any PII to TRS unless requested by your coach in a secure format.
• Do not include PII if using the TRS RE Portal Chat function. Please call or use a secure email option instead.
• When emailing your coach, use directional language instead of   emailing RE Portal screenshots containing PII. For example, “I need assistance with a suspended record on my September Regular Payroll (RP) Report for J Smith.”
• Utilize secure email when sending messages containing PII, which have been requested by your coach.
• TRS member information is confidential and protected by TRS laws and rules. While PII is shared between the RE and TRS, RE coaches are limited by state law on what information can be shared with   an employer. For example, TRS coaches cannot provide the name of former or concurrent employers, or specific TRS retirement application data received from a member.