FC: GAO makes dubious claim: No privacy problems with SSNs & DMVs

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Apr 03 2002 - 21:14:54 PST

  • Next message: Declan McCullagh: "FC: DOJ, ACLU relied on junk science: N.J. racial profiling a myth?"

    http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26989 
    
       YOUR PAPERS, PLEASE 
       No problem with agencies sharing data?
       GAO says privacy experts OK with collecting Social Security numbers
         _________________________________________________________________
       
       Posted: March 28, 2002
       1:00 a.m. Eastern
       
       By Jon Dougherty
       © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
       
       A General Accounting Office report has claimed that privacy experts
       "have no problems" with the collection and use of Social Security
       numbers by state motor vehicle agencies, though experts who spoke with
       WorldNetDaily disagreed with the agency's assertion.
       
       The GAO, Congress' watchdog agency, made the claim in a report
       released in February entitled, "Child Support Enforcement: Most States
       Collect SSNs and Use Them To Enforce Child Support."
       
       It said that 47 out of 53 motor vehicle agencies [MVAs] "collect SSNs
       from all applicants for driver's licenses," but that federal officials
       have "taken limited or no steps to promote such collection of SSNs in
       states not currently doing so."
       
       "While many of the state officials and privacy experts we spoke with
       recognized the increased dissemination of SSNs throughout society as a
       serious concern, few felt that this concern extended to the policy of
       motor vehicle agencies collecting SSNs for child support enforcement,"
       said the report.
    
       [...]
    
    
    
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
    You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
    Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
    To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
    This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Politech dinner in SF on 4/16: http://www.politechbot.com/events/cfp2002/
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Apr 04 2002 - 01:17:27 PST