Legislator Charges California UCC Documents Exposed Social Security Numbers

California Assemblyman Dave Jones in a press conference last week, said that the Secretary of State's Office was selling access to Uniform Commercial Code documents that contained complete Social Security Numbers. Jones is sponsor of AB1168 requiring Social Security Numbers be truncated in the electronic records of colleges and universities, so that no more than the last four digits are displayed. Secretary of State Debra Bowen immediately shut down access to the records until a solution could be found, according to press reports.

At the heart of the matter is the fact that the California Public Records Act (CPRA) requires government agencies to make most records available for public inspection and exempts such records from a law prohibiting display of Social Security numbers.