California Shuts Down Online Database with Social Security Numbers

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Three years after it first made available documents that contained Social Security numbers on its Web site, the California secretary of state’s office shut down online access to the records because of identity theft concerns. Secretary of State Debra Bowen said her office would also stop bulk electronic sales of its Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) database until all but the last four digits of Social Security numbers were removed from documents. About one-third of the 2 million UCC documents that had been available through the website contained Social Security numbers. (4/19/07)