IL: Paper trail: Records with personal data found blowing in wind

[kirniki <kirniki () gmail com>]

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/01/paper-trail-records-with-personal-data-found-blowing-in-wind.html

Having worked in the banking industry for years, Elida Cruz routinely
assured her clients that their personal information would remain
confidential.

So she was understandably horrified Thursday to learn that paperwork
carrying her own Social Security number, birth date, phone number and
job history was found literally floating down Touhy Avenue in Des
Plaines.

Hundreds of documents, including 2009 W-2 forms, investment account
balances and job applications -- many with Social Security numbers --
were found blowing in the wind around Touhy and Eastview Drive.

[..]

"I am pretty much disgusted with this," said Cruz, 47, of Chicago, who
was notified by the Tribune that at least 17 documents with her Social
Security number had been retrieved. She identified the paperwork as
part of a job application with Rabjohns Financial Group/New England
Financial in Chicago, which included a completed U4 form required in
the industry.

Cruz, a former bank officer who is currently unemployed, said she
applied for the job several years ago.

"All of that is sensitive information," she fumed. "You would think
your stuff is secure."

Other documents came from banking, insurance and medical facilities
located miles away, including 2009 W-2 forms for employees at MedHQ, a
Westchester firm that provides business services to health care
providers.

"I don't know how it could have happened," said Tom Jacobs, MedHQ
president. "It is really upsetting to know there might be some
documents out there that are loose like that. We are down near Oak
Brook and don't have any customers in that area."

He said he called the vendor that shreds documents for the company,
but no one there claimed responsibility.

David Collins, owner of Lindy Manufacturing, a metal stamping company
in Downers Grove, said his business does all its shredding in-house,
so he has "no clue" how employees' 401K statements from several years
ago could have ended up floating around Des Plaines with other
sensitive documents.

[..]
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