Publishing Protester Pushes Privacy

A federal court has preserved the right of a Virginia privacy advocate to protest government's weak oversight of personal data by publishing on her Web site the Social Security numbers of state officials.

A federal appeals court in Virginia said Betty "B.J." Ostergren can keep the data of government officials on her Web site, thevirginiawatchdog.com, despite a law that prohibits publishing Social Security numbers, the Washington Post reported.

Ostergren posted the information to highlight the failure of some Virginia counties to redact sensitive data from online, accessible land records. Ostergren said the data could be used to steal a person's identity through fraud. The data were left in records in 15 of the state's 120 counties in mid-2008, and she published officials' information on her own Web site after the Virginia General Assembly failed to provide money for the software to remove the numbers.

"Seeing a document containing an SSN posted on my website makes a viewer understand instantly, at a gut level, why it is so important to prevent the government from making this information available online," Ostergren told the Courthouse News Service.

Her action prompted the Virginia Legislature to pass a law later in 2008 making it illegal to publish Social Security numbers online, prompting Ostergren to file a First Amendment lawsuit against state Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II. Federal appeals Judge Allyson K. Duncan found the Virginia law unconstitutional, and said the unredacted numbers were the key to Ostergren's protest.

"Displaying them proves Virginia's failure to safeguard private information and powerfully demonstrates why Virginia citizens should be concerned," Duncan ruled.