They’ve got your number?

To stop identity thieves, government needs to keep Social Security numbers private

Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008 | midnight

With hardly any effort, The Washington Post was able to find the Social Security numbers of several prominent Americans, including former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman.

The Post was able to find the personal data on the Internet by searching a variety of public documents, including court files, traffic tickets, land deeds, liens and death certificates. Those documents with the Social Security numbers attached are a threat to the public. Identity thieves see such documents as fodder for their work.

“The government loves to spoon-feed criminals by putting these dern records on their Web sites,” said Betty Ostergren, a Virginia activist on a crusade against posting such sensitive information online.

As part of her effort to demonstrate the problem to lawmakers, Ostergren has taken to tracking down Social Security numbers online and has found those belonging to former Rep. Tom Delay, R-Texas, former Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., former CIA Director Porter Goss and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

The federal courts have banned Social Security numbers from public documents since 2001, and many states, including Nevada, have similar provisions. However, there is still a treasure trove for identity thieves in documents created before these laws went into effect.

The threat of identity theft, however, should not become an excuse for governments to keep public documents secret. Public documents must remain public, but government officials must be incredibly careful to make sure documents lingering online do not include any of the sensitive information that can become a boon for an identity thief.

Nevada's law has been bolstered over the past few years to further protect the public against the dissemination of people's names and Social Security numbers, and that is good. Identity theft is a crime that upends the victim's life and government should be doing everything it reasonably can to prevent it.