Florida Court Upholds Limited Release of Social Security Numbers

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An appeals court in Florida ruled that the Sarasota Herald-Tribune was legally entitled to the Social Security Numbers of public school teachers when used to verify performance on state-required competency tests. Initially, the newspaper asked Department of Education officials to match test results with teacher rosters so they wouldn’t need Social Security numbers. When the state officials refused, saying it would take too much time, the Herald-Tribune did the matching — in less than an hour. (2/17/05)