What Is Manifest Confidentiality and Why Should You Care?
Learn what manifest confidentiality is, why it matters for importers and exporters, and how Customs Data Lock can keep your trade data hidden and secure.
If you import or export goods, your shipment information might be more public than you realize. Competitors, suppliers, and even data brokers can often access your shipping records through commercial websites that scrape and publish U.S. Customs data. Fortunately, there’s a way to take back control — and it starts with manifest confidentiality.
What Is Manifest Confidentiality?
In simple terms, manifest confidentiality refers to the ability to restrict public access to your company’s shipment details — including your name, your suppliers, and the goods being transported — from public vessel manifests and customs records.
Under U.S. law, certain import and export data is made public through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Third-party platforms like ImportGenius, ImportYeti, and Panjiva aggregate this data, making it easy for others to view your trade activity. Unless you’ve taken action, your shipments could already be visible.
Why Should You Care?
Your shipping records can reveal sensitive business information, such as:
- Who your overseas suppliers are
- What products you’re importing or exporting
- How frequently you ship and at what volume
- Strategic sourcing patterns or factory relationships
In short: if someone knows where to look, they can reverse-engineer your supply chain. This kind of exposure opens the door to:
- Competitor surveillance
- Supplier poaching
- Unauthorized sourcing copycats
- Trade secrets leaking into the open market
If you’re in ecommerce, manufacturing, private labeling, or any B2B import-export industry, the risk is real and growing.
How Customs Data Lock Helps You Achieve Manifest Confidentiality
That’s where Customs Data Lock comes in. We offer a specialized service that removes your company’s information from public vessel manifests and keeps it private going forward.
Here’s how we do it:
- Customs Manifest Suppression Filing - We prepare and submit your Manifest Confidentiality Request directly to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — ensuring your business and supplier details are officially excluded from public release.
- Multi-Site Trade Data Removal - We'll make sure your future trade data isn't visible on leading trade data aggregator websites - including ImportGenius, ImportYeti, Panjiva, and others — to suppress existing records and prevent future visibility.
- Ongoing Monitoring - Data suppression isn’t a one-time task. Customs Data Lock continuously monitors public trade databases to confirm that your shipment data stays hidden - even as aggregators update their records.
- Automatic Renewal - will automatically renew your confidentiality so no records slip through.
The Competitive Advantage of Data Privacy
In an age where supply chain intelligence is currency, securing your customs data is no longer optional; it’s a business necessity.
Whether you’re protecting sensitive vendor relationships or preventing competitors from analyzing your sourcing patterns, manifest confidentiality offers a cost-effective layer of strategic defense.
Take Control of Your Customs Data Today
Your competitors shouldn’t know who you’re sourcing from, what you’re importing, or how often you’re shipping. With Customs Data Lock, you gain:
- True manifest confidentiality
- Protection across major data aggregator platforms
- Ongoing monitoring to keep your information locked down
- A partner who understands supply chain privacy inside and out
Ready to lock down your shipment data? Contact us today to secure your company’s trade information and gain the privacy your business deserves.
Protect and monitor your customs data now, for only $199/year. Get Started.
