GUIDANCE FOR USING AMRDEC SAFE TO SEND PII INFORMATION
EFFECTIVELY IMMEDIATELY! The NAVMED Accessions Office received new security protocols for safeguarding your Personally Identifiable Information (PII). PII is defined by the Department of Defense as “Information about an individual that identifies, links, relates or is unique-to, or describes him or her, e.g., a SSN; age; rank; grade; marital status; race; salary; contact information, addresses, other demographic, biometric, personnel, medical and financial information” that someone could use to steal your identity.
When sending anything that contains Personal Identifiable Information (PII) or data that contains HIPAA information, YOU MUST USE THE AMRDEC SAFE WEBSITE, located at https://safe.amrdec.army.mil/safe/. This site is designed to securely allow access to files which contain PII. Your e-mail will be forwarded to the appropriate section for action. USE ONE E-MAIL FOR ONE TOPIC ONLY.
EXAMPLE: DO NOT SEND A REQUEST FOR REIMBURSEMENT AND AN ADDRESS CHANGE IN THE SAME E-MAIL. They go to different departments and AMRDEC can only be opened once each time. If data is going to more than 1 department, data may be lost.
HOW TO USE AMRDEC SAFE:
1. Before you use this website, scan and save your documents as one file (up to 2 GB is allowed) as “Your Name –Document Type. “
2. Go to the AMRDEC site https://safe.amrdec.army.mil/safe/ . On the first page, click on “Non-CAC User". You will go to a page in which you must input your name, e-mail and a confirmation of your e-mail (in other words, it must be entered twice).
3. Go to the “File Information” section. Hit the “Browse” button to find your file and click on it. It will appear below the Browse box.
Click on the “Privacy Act Data” box if your file has PII. To the right you will see a gray box which allows you to input a description of the files and what you want performed.
Please input your name and a description of what the files are for. Example: RANK-NAME-ACCESSION PROGRAM –PURPOSE OF THE EMAIL AND THE NAME OF THE DOCUMENT. An example may look like “ENS John Smith, HPSP – reimbursement of books and supplies.”
4. In the “Recipient Information” section, you must manually enter the e-mail addresses of the people you want to have access to your files. ()
5. In the “Email Settings” section, click “encrypt email message when possible,” and any of the other notifications that you would like to receive., such as FOUO (For Official Use Only) or Privacy Act Data.
6. The last step is to click on “UPLOAD.” Read the SAFE Usage Policy, and hit the “I AGREE” button.
Your file(s) will be uploaded and the Accessions Department (or whoever its going to) will receive a notification of your files in the AMRDEC site.
Please note that the AMRDEC site can handle file sizes up to 2 GB!
Conversely, the Accessions Staff will use the above system to send PII-containing documents to you.
When you get an e-mail from , it is because we have sent you sensitive documents with PII.
Please follow the instructions in the e-mail (which will contain a unique password and the web address) to obtain the documents. The process to download should be fast and similar to what you use for other safe electronic transfer systems.
On a side note, do not be lead into believing that because you are sending unencrypted documents to a .mil address that your identity cannot be stolen. After your identity has been stolen, guidance for sending PII information will no longer seem long and cumbersome.