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Thursday, February 26, 2004
Law - GAO Reports on Private Sector Use of Social Security Number
"Social Security Numbers: Private Sector Entities Routinely Obtain and Use SSNs, and Laws Limit the Disclosure of This Information," is the title of this 35-page GAO report issued 2/24/04. a one-page "highlights" sheet may be accessed here.
Page 24 of the GAO report states:
At least six states have enacted their own legislation to restrict private sector uses of SSNs. Based on our review of select legislative documents within 18 states, California, Missouri, Arizona, Georgia, Utah, and Texas had enacted laws to restrict either the display or the use of SSNs.What about Indiana? In 1978 the State of Indiana enacted a law providing that "No individual may be compelled by any state agency, board, commission, department, bureau, or other entity of state government to provide the individual's Social Security number to the state agency against the individual's will, absent federal requirements to the contrary." This law was the result of 12/1/76 recommendations of Governor Otis Bowen's Commission on Individual Privacy. This group was charged with investigating and making recommendations on, among other things, "the use of social security numbers, license plate numbers, universal identifiers and other symbols to identify individuals in data bases and to gain access to, integrate or centralize information systems and files."
Take a look at that same law as it exists today, IC 4-1-8-1 (go to version b). Today, twenty-six years later, the law has been amended over and over and now contains a list of dozens of exemptions, which appear to exclude most state government functions from the prohibition against requiring an individual to provide her social security number.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 26, 2004 07:39 AM
Posted to General News