[privacy] Wisconsin Tax Mailing has Social Security Numbers Visible

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

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Via The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Props, Pogo Was Right).

[snip]

When Wisconsin taxpayers pull their packets of 2006 state income tax forms
out of their mailboxes, tens of thousands of them will see something even
less welcome than the annual reminder of how much money they owe to
Madison.

They'll see their Social Security numbers, printed right on the outside of
the booklets - where identity thieves might be able to see them.

About 170,000 tax booklets were mailed with Social Security numbers on the
address labels because of a computer programming error at a printing
company hired by the state, Meredith Helgerson, spokeswoman for the state
Department of Revenue, said Friday. That's about 15% of the 1.1 million
booklets mailed out to individual taxpayers who file their returns by mail,
she said.

The error is limited to taxpayers who filed Form 1, the long form, by mail
earlier this year to pay their 2005 state income taxes, Helgerson said. It
does not affect individuals who filed electronically or through
professional tax preparers; individuals who filed the state's short, EZ or
non-resident forms; or businesses, she said.

[snip]

More:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=547475

- - ferg

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--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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