Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mcnc!uvaarpa!murdoch!astsun.astro.Virginia.EDU!gl8f
From: gl8f@astsun.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Interesting case relating to Social Security Numbers
Message-ID: <1990Dec2.223620.11428@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 2 Dec 90 22:36:20 GMT
Sender: news@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU
Organization: Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia
Lines: 18

There's in interesting case in Illinois, in which Planned Parenthood
is challenging a state law requiring parents to provide all sorts of
personal information for birth certificates, including social security
numbers of both parents.

The Washington Post today (12/2) quotes Joan Criswell, president of
Planned Parenthood of East-Central Illinois, as saying "This is not
public informatin. And once it gets put into a major data bank, you
lose all control over the information."

Apparently the case is proceeding against both the state and the feds
at the same time: the state requires the certificates, while the
federal government is requiring the states to collect a smaller set of
information for health statistics. (?)

Anyway, I haven't seen much from the EFF yet concerning privacy and
electronic databases, but perhaps they'd be interested in filing a
friend of the court brief concerning SSN disclosure?