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IP: Uncle Sam Has All Your Numbers
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 18:49:54 -0400
From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () iconia com> To: "Dave e-mail pamphleteer Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu> Uncle Sam Has All Your Numbers By Robert O'Harrow Jr. Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 27, 1999; Page A1 As part of a new and aggressive effort to track down parents who owe child support, the federal government has created a vast computerized data-monitoring system that includes all individuals with new jobs and the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and wages of nearly every working adult in the United States. Government agencies have long gathered personal information for specific reasons, such as collecting taxes. But never before have federal officials had the legal authority and technological ability to locate so many Americans found to be delinquent parents or such potential to keep tabs on Americans accused of nothing. The system was established under a little-known part of the law overhauling welfare three years ago. It calls for all employers to quickly file reports on every person they hire and, quarterly, the wages of every worker. States regularly must report all people seeking unemployment benefits and all child-support cases. Starting next month, the system will reach further. Large banks and other financial institutions will be obligated to search for data about delinquent parents by name on behalf of the government, providing authorities with details about bank accounts, money-market mutual funds and other holdings of those parents. State officials, meanwhile, have sharply expanded the use of Social Security numbers. Congress ordered the officials to obtain the nine-digit numbers when issuing licenses such as drivers', doctors' and outdoorsmen's in order to revoke the licenses of delinquents. Enforcement officials say the coupling of computer technology with details about individuals' employment and financial holdings will give them an unparalleled ability to identify and locate parents who owe child support and, when necessary, withhold money from their paychecks or freeze their financial assets. <snip> [The rest cut - article available at url below.] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/june99/privacy27.htm =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Geoff_Goodfellow () iconia com, s.r.o. * tel/mobil +420 (0)603 706 558 Vsehrdova 2, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic * fax +420 2 5732 0623 "Success is getting what you want & happiness is wanting what you get"
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- IP: Uncle Sam Has All Your Numbers Dave Farber (Jun 27)