Social Security privacy issue moot, judge says

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

Declaring the issue moot, a state judge yesterday said he will not issue an order barring future release of Social Security information by state agencies.

Attorneys Brent White, of the American Civil Liberties Union's Honolulu office, and Brook Hart told Circuit Judge Gary Chang that the state Department of Transportation violated the 1974 federal privacy act and state Constitution by turning over a "database" of Social Security numbers to a private company that operated the short-lived "van cam" speed limit enforcement program in Hawai'i.

White asked Chang for a court order telling state officials not to release such information again or to sell it to third parties.

But Wayne Matsuura, a deputy attorney general, told Chang that ACS officials maintain that they have returned to the state all information having to do with the Social Security numbers of Hawai'i drivers. Until recently, Social Security numbers were used on driver's licenses issued in Hawai'i.

Matsuura told Chang the state was entitled to turn the Social Security number information over to ACS and that it has not been shown that doing so resulted in harm to anyone.

Chang ruled that the issued was moot because the Legislature voted earlier this year to cancel the program.

Hart and White, however, contend the issue is not moot because the state might try to resurrect the program based on its own administrative authority.

After the hearing, Hart said outside the courtroom that he and White may appeal Chang's ruling.

Hart said "identity theft" has become a growing problem in the past decade and has skyrocketed in the past two years.

"One thing thieves need to steal someone's identity is a Social Security number," Hart said. "We (the state) gave thousands of them away to a company with thousands of employees with thousands of computers across the country."

White said he was concerned about statements made by ACS officials that the company kept no "hard copy" information about the list of Social Security information given to the company by the state. White said the company did not say whether it kept an electronic copy of the information, but Matsuura said it is clear that company officials maintain that they kept no record of the information in any form.

Chang gave White and Hart a week to decide if they want to move forward with a portion of the lawsuit contending that individual Hawai'i residents may have been harmed by the state's release of the Social Security numbers.