Social Insecurity: Office Workers Toss SSNs During Ticker Tape Parade

Yesterday's ticker tape parade for the Super Bowl XLVI Championship Giants was boisterous and loud. But our embedded reporters noticed that whole pieces of paper were thrown out of windows, instead of locally-sourced confetti or shredded paper—in fact, in some instances, it seemed like someone opened up a new ream of paper and threw a stack of sheets out. Now, Inside Edition has discovered that at least some office workers were throwing papers with people's personal information—like SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS—out during the revelry!

In a segment that airs today at noon (channel 5, MyFoxNY), Inside Edition's Paul Boyd dug through some of the celebratory detritus with a former FBI investigator, "Sensitive documents were being thrown out of windows—information regarding people’s medical records and social security numbers, and even information about a 54-year-old woman’s mammogram, all with specific details you probably wouldn’t want aired in public."

Offices: GET SHREDDERS.

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By Jen Chung in News on February 8, 2012 9:12 AM

Comments [rss]

Peanut_Butter

It is horrifying to fully contemplate the many sources, companies and individuals that have access to our birth dates and SSNs these days. When are you NOT asked to put down your SSN on a form is the question?

yappy00

I actually watched people doing this yesterday from an office right across the street from us as the parade passed, and was slightly baffled by it.

About 6 or 7 people carrying several reams of paper to the window and lobbing a handful of sheets at a time out into the street. It looked like they'd just decided to dump the contents of the copier out of the window.

I guess they figured "Uhhhh, paper is paper" (probably while mouth-breathing and drooling a little) and decided to bypass the inconvenient and time-consuming step of shredding. Enthusiastic. But dumb as a bag of rocks. Even more so since:

a) their windows are set back from the street by about 15 feet of ledge
b) their windows face a cross-street, not Broadway
c) any paper that didn't just plop down onto the ledge was being carried *away* from Broadway, the parade and the crowds by the prevailing wind...

Unfortunately I was too slow grabbing my phone and firing up the video -- I think they'd worked out the prevailing wind problem by the time I was ready and given up.

LtWorf

Is it just me, or does this seem to happen EVERY YEAR? And every year there's a story about it.

Nobody learns anything.

FU Boy

"Every Halloween, the trees are filled with underwear. Every spring, the toilets explode." And every year there are soccer riots in Europe. Every St Patty's day there is untold amounts of public, drunken urination...

Didn't a couple people get beaten up this year after games just because their team won or lost? I don't blame the sport, but the idiot drunken fans who scream "we won!" when "we" just got drunk and acted like assholes.

But people are idiots in general, why were you expecting better from football fans?

GentleGiant

I'm glad they conferred with a former FBI investigator.

mdiesel

54 year old Woman's mammogram? This parade just got sexy...

schmeep

Agreed: www.modelswithcancer.xxx is the BOMB!

redo_undo

I hope they disclose which company was doing this. Idiots.

Dirk

Agreed. The company who did this needs to be publicly shamed.

FU Boy

Check that - they need to be shut down. Allowing medical records to get into public hands is against federal law.

Throwing them out the window because "WOOOOOOOO! GIANTS!" should not lessen the crime.

m015094

Shut down? Some people go to jail for HIPPA violations.

http://privacyblog.littler.com...

FU Boy

If the person(s) responsible are found / come forward, agreed on jail time. But that probably won't happen. If that's the case I'd say shut down the company.