AP: New scrutiny of sale of dead people's SS#'s

[Xeni Jardin]

New scrutiny of sale of the dead's Social Security data
November 7, 2001 Posted: 8:39 PM EST (0139 GMT)
<http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/11/07/inv.selling.dead.numbers.ap/index.html>

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government's practice of selling personal
information about dead people -- including their Social Security numbers -- to
anyone is getting a closer look after investigators determined that all 19
terrorist hijackers obtained numbers.

The Social Security Administration has been required to compile its Death Master
File since a 1980 court settlement that in essence said dead people do not have
privacy rights. Identifying information, including Social Security numbers, must
be made public under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Death Master File contains 66 million to 70 million records with verified
and unverified death reports, and includes Social Security numbers, full names,
date of death, date of birth, state, county and ZIP code of the last known
address.

"As it is now, anybody in the world can go and buy that information," said
spokesman Tom Tobin.

The issue will be discussed at a hearing Thursday of the House Ways and Means
Social Security subcommittee.

All 19 terrorist hijackers involved in the September 11 terrorist attacks had
Social Security numbers, and 13 obtained them legally, the Social Security
Administration has said. It is unclear how the other six obtained their numbers.

"People are making the speculation that did the terrorist get the numbers from
the Death Master File? My personal guess is that, no they didn't," Tobin said.
"There are a whole bunch of other ways to come up with fake identities. There
are things that you could do with that file, and that might be one of them."

Social Security obtains the information about deceased beneficiaries from family
members, funeral homes, states, other federal agencies and financial
institutions, and matches it to payment records to terminate benefits.

That information is shared with other agencies to match their own records. It
also is provided monthly to the Commerce Department's National Technical
Information Service, which sells it to the public on a disk or file at a cost
that reimburses Social Security for providing the information.

More than 100 public and private institutions and companies such as banks,
financial institutions, insurance companies, subscribe to the information,
according to SSA information provided by Democratic congressional staffers.

Subscribers include Web sites, such as Genealogy.com, Edata.com and
Ancestry.com, and other businesses including Bank One, National City Bank,
Cigna, EDS, Caterpillar Inc. and Lockheed Martin.

A monthly subscription is $2,760 in North America, and a monthly international
subscription is $5,520, according to the Commerce Department's Web site.
Quarterly subscriptions are available for $6,900 in North America and $13,800
internationally.

SSA sends the Death Master File to the Commerce Department via Federal Express
but is considering transmitting the information electronically, SSA officials
have said.

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