Digikey keeps flagging me for Export Compliance

[frogg]

Every single order I've put into Digikey in the last few months has been flagged for Export Compliance checking , which based on a conversation with a Digikey CSR may have to do with my name being "similar" to someone on a deny list for components. What kind of a check is a "similar name check"? This seems pretty error prone to me, and I'm starting to get the feeling that this is some sort of racial profiling. Would I get hit if my last name was "Schwartz" or "Jones"?  This is all despite the fact that I'm an American and have ordered many times from Digikey in the past.

Has anyone else seen this? Anyone with an Asian sounding last name constantly getting flagged for Export Compliance checks?

[mikeselectricstuff]

Maybe try changing the name  on your account?

[ataradov]

There are lots of "American" names that match. I have to deal with it for my work too, and I actually only ever had to clear American sounding names.

But this should only happen once per account. Once the account (email) is cleared manually, it should not trigger a match again. There is something wrong in DK implementation of the system.

[tom66]

Can you "change" your name?  For instance, if you are "John Smith" with a middle name of "Kevin", you could have packages delivered to Mr. Johnathan K. Smith. 

In most countries, it is not illegal to go by a different name, if the intent is to not defraud or deceive.  Presuming there is no reason for you to actually be in violation of export compliance, this should be OK.  IANAL though.

[ataradov]

There are many reasons for a match other than the name. It might match on the email domain or even delivery address if someone on the list previously lived at that address.

"similar name" may be just a generic reason for a database match. I'm not sure they are even allowed to disclose the actual reason.

The database is way too extensive. It does not only include actual suspects of anything funny, but also government contractors that failed to deliver on a contract, for example.

[Veteran68]

The timing is interesting, as yesterday I just watched Alex from NorthridgeFix complaining that he attempted to order a part from DigiKey for the first time. He usually orders his components from Mouser, but this was a unique part only Digikey had, so he created a business account and placed the order. He got an email that his order was "flagged" for more identification. "Alex" is a nickname he's gone by since childhood, while his real name is something like Hussain Ali. They asked for all sorts of identification. He got fed up and cancelled that order, created a new order under a guest account, and that order was processed and shipped without incident.

If that was indeed some sort of profiling/screening based on an ethnic sounding name, not only is it terrible but also obviously not very effective at accomplishing whatever it was trying to accomplish. Makes me really question DigiKey's motivations here.

[ataradov]

There is no profiling on the DK side. The database all those systems use is common and maintained by the government or some governmental organization. The match happens on the exact name and for common names the match is going to be very likely. There are a ton of Johns and Mikes in that database too.

It is very annoying and mostly causes false positives. Vendors don't want this thing either, but it is mandated.

The system is also incredibly dumb, instead of taking into account full information, it matches on individual fields.

[m98]

How does this system work in the US? You operate a business and unsuspectingly, one day some guys in black suits knock on your door and force you to add racial compliance profiling to your ERP-System?

[ywara]

Everyone who sells anything is obligated to screen customers in this way, except brick and mortar retail I guess?

Lots of smugglers on the denied parties list, but there's a ton of businesses there who exported something without a license (i.e. exported something the government really doesn't want you exporting). If you sell something to them, you might be criminally liable if they were to export it.

[pdenisowski]

How does this system work in the US? You operate a business and unsuspectingly, one day some guys in black suits knock on your door and force you to add racial compliance profiling to your ERP-System?

Everyone who sells anything is obligated to screen customers in this way, except brick and mortar retail I guess?

Lots of smugglers on the denied parties list, but there's a ton of businesses there who exported something without a license (i.e. exported something the government really doesn't want you exporting). If you sell something to them, you might be criminally liable if they were to export it.

There's a reason a lot of manufacturers have their employees take mandatory export compliance training every year.  Ask Keysight :

https://www.state.gov/u-s-department-of-state-concludes-6-6-million-settlement-of-alleged-export-violations-by-keysight-technologies-inc/

Not casting shade on Keysight: it's very easy to (innocently) get in trouble if you aren't careful, and companies like DigiKey are probably erring on the side of caution.

[frogg]

There's a reason a lot of manufacturers have their employees take mandatory export compliance training every year.  Ask Keysight :

https://www.state.gov/u-s-department-of-state-concludes-6-6-million-settlement-of-alleged-export-violations-by-keysight-technologies-inc/

Not casting shade on Keysight: it's very easy to (innocently) get in trouble if you aren't careful, and companies like DigiKey are probably erring on the side of caution.

I'd like to explain it away as a matter of "compliance" but compliance to what? I'm buying parts as a US Citizen, sending them to my home address which is very obviously in the USA. So what's the triggering factor other than my name? My first name is about as Wonder Bread  / "Mom and Apple Pie" as you can get, by the way.

I can't believe this is somehow related to export compliance when it is very obviously being sent to a home address in the USA.

Has anyone on here who does not have an Asian or Arab last name gotten hit with the export compliance check at Digikey?

[TimFox]

Note that "compliance" here includes that you will not export the item to a bad place.

[ywara]

I'd like to explain it away as a matter of "compliance" but compliance to what? I'm buying parts as a US Citizen, sending them to my home address which is very obviously in the USA. So what's the triggering factor other than my name? My first name is about as Wonder Bread  / "Mom and Apple Pie" as you can get, by the way.

I can't believe this is somehow related to export compliance when it is very obviously being sent to a home address in the USA.

I can assure you that people with whitebread names and USA house addresses can and do get dinged and end up on one of the numerous lists that digikey may be screening against.

You can use this search and see (maybe) what you're being flagged for.
https://www.trade.gov/data-visualization/csl-search

[TimFox]

A recent post by the US Department of Justice about illegal exports and money laundering from US locations:
https://www.justice.gov/nsd/export-control-news
Most of the perpetrators named have Chinese, Slavic, Iranian, or Arabic surnames, but looking back to 2022 I found one named "Robertson", another named "Hunt", a "Griffith", and a disgraced FBI agent named "McGonigal".

[frogg]

A recent post by the US Department of Justice about illegal exports and money laundering from US locations

I'm not sure I understand what that has to do with me. What's your point exactly?

I can assure you that people with whitebread names and USA house addresses can and do get dinged and end up on one of the numerous lists that digikey may be screening against.

You can use this search and see (maybe) what you're being flagged for.

I can assure you that neither my name nor address are anywhere in that database.

I think some folks who are responding to this aren't getting my point: I don't mind if my Digikey orders get checked against some kind of spook database. What do I care? Go ahead.

What I consider problematic is that my name and address are most certainly not in any of those databases, yet Digikey consistently fails to ship my order until I call them and give them info they already have (my name and my phone number), after which I then have to wait a few days until they actually ship the order. What's the point? I even had an order a month ago that literally never shipped from Digikey, just because they failed to contact me that the parts were withheld for reasons of export compliance. I didn't even realize that they didn't ship until I needed the parts for the board I was building.  What's even more infuriating is that they ended up shipping the parts for the withheld order after I called them and complained. They apologized, but again: What the heck is this system preventing? Does an angry phone call somehow verify that I'm not a bad guy?

The fact that I could order this stuff under an alias makes me realize that this is probably even more obviously racist than I thought it was. I shouldn't have to use a fake name just to buy some common SMD resistors and capacitors.

[DimitriP]

Would I get hit if my last name was "Schwartz" or "Jones"?

Yes,  you would. 
https://www.trade.gov/data-visualization/csl-search

Nothing of all this is "racial".

[Kim Christensen]

Ah, the illusion of security so the politicians can pat themselves on their backs and say, "See we did something!" 

[Njk]

I do remember how it was a couple of years ago to buy a parts from, say, TI. With every local distributor, the procedure was the same. The customer had to download the form of two pages, to fill the printed form, to sign it, to scan it and to send it back to the distributor. In that form, I'd to identify myself, and to explain how I'm going to use the parts, and to certify that I'm not a sanctioned person and is not affiliated with the sanctioned companies and I will not re-export the parts to the hostile countries. That was for each order, not one time. Quite annoying. It seems logical that the witch hunt finally reached the domestic soil.

[frogg]

Would I get hit if my last name was "Schwartz" or "Jones"?

Yes,  you would. 
https://www.trade.gov/data-visualization/csl-search

This is NOT about that stupid database. This is about Digikey's flagging process. Have you ordered from Digikey and have you been hit with the export compliance check?

[BrokenYugo]

Wild ass guess: By making you jump through those hoops  they fulfill some "yup, not a bot" requirement they don't want to build a better solution for.

Try a competitor? Fighting the giant faceless corporation to fix a personal assessment of their internal failings is generally a losing battle.

[SiliconWizard]

Would I get hit if my last name was "Schwartz" or "Jones"?

Yes,  you would. 
https://www.trade.gov/data-visualization/csl-search

Nothing of all this is "racial".

So if it's not "racial", it's all fine then?

Is being discriminated due to one's name acceptable when there's no proof that you may cause any problem? A real question.

[Ranayna]

On the one hand, Digikey has no obligations to deal with you at all. They are not forced by anything to enter into a contract with you.
On the other hand they can get into big trouble with the US government if they enter into a contract with the wrong person.

So the choice seems to be easy: Err on the side of caution. They may lose some customers, but as long as they can proove due diligence will likely not get into major trouble with the government.

Addendum: That the US apparently mainly just uses names for for this has been an issue for quite some time. I remember reading quite a few stories about people who have "name twins" on the no-fly-list.

[thm_w]

The alternative to using names on the US list would be a national ID number or have people enter their SSN.
And you already know what the reaction to that would be 

[Bud]

Addendum: That the US apparently mainly just uses names for for this has been an issue for quite some time. I remember reading quite a few stories about people who have "name twins" on the no-fly-list.

One of my previous manager's last name was Ali. He told me he was routinely stopped at airports for identity check. That was back in post-911 years.

[coppercone2]

reminds me of how in ww2 italians had to be on a government list for radio privileges. you had to have a tech basically reduce the reception capabilities!
http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=10944