At 09:27 AM 5/20/01 -0700, Charles Farley wrote: >The dissemination of an SSN does not contribute an idea, there is no >speech content behind it. If it advances a compelling interest, in this >case individual privacy, it seems to me a pretty good idea to restrict >disclosure. The "compelling interest" in disseminating personal information on others should be obvious. Particularly where those others are public employees or the subject of public controversy. Names, addresses, dates of birth (DOB), and other identifiers like SSNs serve to identify a person and locate him. Members of the general public need to identify and locate a person for the same reasons that government officials claim that they need to identify and locate *us*. If we can't identify and locate people, we can't indulge in such protected activities as: 1) Petitioning for redress of grievances 2) Communicating in general 3) Investigating 4) Picketing 5) Suing 6) Arresting (citizens retain the right of arrest) If we don't know who a person is or where he is we can't monitor him to assure ourselves that he is doing his job properly and obeying the law. While private individuals may object if we do too much of this to them, public employees can't logically object since they owe us a special duty to act in the open. Their identities and locations shouldn't be hidden. The activities of public officials are of inherent interest to the public. The perils of secret government are too well known. In any case, the courts have held that it's legal to write about the public activities of others and picket their homes and places of business (and this applies equally to civil servants and ordinary citizens). And one cannot do these things without identifying and locating them. And the SSN is just one form of identifier. So if you're a cop, a judge, a mayor, an abortion provider, a sex offender, the director of a lab that indulges in animal testing, the head of the ACLU, a purveyor of furs, or any of a host of other sorts of person you will sometimes find yourself the target of constitutionally-protected activities. If this concerns you, quit your job if you're a public employee or upgrade your level of security if you are a private person. Don't try and oppress others. DCF ---- "We use the facts you provide on this form to assign you a Social Security Number and to issue you a Social Security Card. You do not have to give us these facts, however, without them we cannot issue you a Social Security number or a card. Without a number, you may not be able to get a job and could lose Social Security benefits in the future." --From the Privacy Act notice on the Application for a Social Security Card. Proof that Social Security numbering is voluntary. See: http://www.ssa.gov/online/ss-5.html.
