[Dataloss] Fringe: legality of posting PII data in VA

[Henry Brown]

Judge lets privacy advocate keep Social Security numbers on Web site

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9113642

Can a state government prohibit an individual from posting Social 
Security numbers online that were easily and legally obtained from 
government Web sites?

The answer, a federal judge in Virginia ruled last week, is a definite 
'No,' at least for Betty "BJ" Ostergren, a privacy advocate who operates 
a Web site that posts Social Security numbers obtained from public 
records. Ostergren's postings are part of a campaign to show how easy it 
is to access very personal information on the Web.

In a memorandum issued last Friday 
http://www.acluva.org/docket/pleadings/ostergren_opinion.pdf  , Judge 
Robert Payne of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of 
Virginia ruled that it would be unconstitutional for the state of 
Virginia to force Ostergren to remove from her site Social Security 
numbers that she legally obtained from public records. A memorandum 
opinion does not create a legal precedent.

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