Your service is on record. Your family's home address doesn't have to be.

A 2023 Duke University study found that data brokers sell sensitive information about active-duty service members, veterans, and their families, including data identifying them by location and financial vulnerability, to anyone willing to pay. Researchers bought this data with minimal verification. The findings prompted a 2024 federal law restricting the sale of such data to foreign adversaries.

USERRA covers employment rights, not data privacy. There is no federal law specifically protecting service-member data from broker sale as of 2026, though several bills have been proposed. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act offers some financial protections. State privacy laws like California's CCPA and Texas's TDPSA apply to military residents the same as any other resident.

APO/FPO addresses provide some operational obscurity for mail but don't prevent brokers from publishing your previous and post-deployment civilian addresses. Brokers correlate across data sources including voter rolls and vehicle registrations. If you've ever had a civilian address attached to your name, brokers likely have it regardless of current APO use.

Higher than you'd expect. Spouses often have less operational-security training but the same household address. Brokers link records by shared address, so a spouse's broker profile typically includes the service member's name and details as an "associated person." Family-plan coverage addresses this gap.

Veterans face documented targeted scam activity, including pension fraud, fake VA benefit calls, and predatory lending. The Duke study covered veterans alongside active-duty personnel because broker data persists long after service ends. The privacy work matters during service, after service, and for the family throughout.