Social Security numbers exposed on public Allegheny Co. website

ALLEGHENY CO., Pa. — Hundreds of Social Security numbers could be contained in unredacted documents that live on the Allegheny County Civil Courts public website, according to a report from our partners at TribLIVE.

TribLIVE found federal tax lien documents filed each year from 1997 to 2010 that display unredacted tax identification numbers. In many cases, they are a person’s SSN.

Others are things like Employer Identification Numbers, which are used for businesses.

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According to TribLIVE, an average of 1,700 federal tax lien records connected to individuals and businesses are accessible on the civil courts website for each year. Tax lien records indicate unpaid taxes on property.

Allegheny County Director of Court Records Michael McGeever told The Trib the county did not retroactively redact these documents after it purchased redaction software in 2012.

“That software was capable of redacting Social Security numbers and other sensitive financial information that filers may have inadvertently added to court pleadings, but is certainly not infallible,” McGeever said in an emailed statement to The Trib. “All filings presented to our office from October 2012 forward have been redacted using the newly purchased software. Documents filed before that date were not impacted as the practice was not applied retroactively.”

For a full report on this investigation, including the dangers of having your Social Security number exposed and the difference between public and private data, visit our news partners at TribLive.com.

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