-Caveat Lector-
Uncle Sam Has All Your Numbers
By Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 27, 1999+ADs- Page A1
As part of a new and aggressive effort to track down
parents who owe child
support, the federal government has created a vast
computerized data-monitoring
system that includes all individuals with new jobs and the
names, addresses, Social
Security numbers and wages of nearly every working adult
in the United States.
Government agencies have long gathered personal
information for specific reasons,
such as collecting taxes. But never before have federal
officials had the legal
authority and technological ability to locate so many
Americans found to be
delinquent parents +IBM- or such potential to keep tabs on
Americans accused of
nothing.
The system was established under a little-known part of
the law overhauling welfare
three years ago. It calls for all employers to quickly
file reports on every person
they hire and, quarterly, the wages of every worker.
States regularly must report all
people seeking unemployment benefits and all child-support
cases.
Starting next month, the system will reach further. Large
banks and other financial
institutions will be obligated to search for data about
delinquent parents by name
on behalf of the government, providing authorities with
details about bank
accounts, money-market mutual funds and other holdings of
those parents. State
officials, meanwhile, have sharply expanded the use of
Social Security numbers.
Congress ordered the officials to obtain the nine-digit
numbers when issuing
licenses +IBM- such as drivers', doctors' and outdoorsmen's +IBM-
in order to revoke the
licenses of delinquents.
Enforcement officials say the coupling of computer
technology with details about
individuals' employment and financial holdings will give
them an unparalleled ability
to identify and locate parents who owe child support and,
when necessary,
withhold money from their paychecks or freeze their
financial assets.
+ACI-They never get away from us anymore. It's just wonderful.
. . . What you're trying
to do in child support is build a box, four walls, around
a person,+ACI- said Brian Shea,
the acting executive director of child-support enforcement
in Maryland. +ACI-It has in
some ways revolutionized this business.+ACI-
But privacy experts and civil libertarians say the scope
of the effort raises new
questions about the proper line between aggressive public
policy and intrusive
government snooping. In pursuing an objective that is
almost universally
applauded, the government has also created something that
many Americans have
staunchly opposed: a vast pool of fresh personal
information that could be used in
a variety of ways to monitor their lives.
+ACI-What you have here is a compilation of information that
is much better and more
current than any other data system in the U.S.,+ACI- said
Robert Gellman, a lawyer and
privacy specialist in the District. +ACI-All of the sudden
we're on the verge of creating
the Holy Grail of data collection, a central file on every
American.+ACI-
Already lawmakers, federal agencies and the White House
have considered
expanding the permitted aims of the system to include
cutting down on fraud by
government contractors, improving the efficiency of the
government and
pinpointing debtors, such as students who default on
government loans.
Under the system, every employer must send information
about new hires and
quarterly wages to state child-support agencies. State
officials gather the data,
along with information on unemployment benefits and
child-support cases, and
then ship it to computers run by the Administration for
Children and Families. ACF
officials then use computers to sort and send back to
state authorities reports about
people obligated to pay child support.
Government officials say the system is safe, accurate and
discreet. They also say it
is secure. Because it has, among other safeguards, systems
that confirm the
accuracy of Social Security numbers, officials say it will
not intrude into the lives of
most people.
An examination of the program, however, shows that
government officials have
downplayed or overlooked a variety of privacy and security
concerns as they
worked to meet congressional deadlines.
The computer system that houses much of the data at the
Social Security
Administration +ACI-has known weaknesses in the security of
its information systems,+ACI-
according to a Dec. 31 report by the General Accounting
Office. And authorities
have not studied the frequency of mistakes that might
arise from incorrect data,
even though the system will enable local child-support
enforcement officials to
routinely freeze a parent's assets without an additional
court hearing.
Few people know about the system, even though it was
created through one of the
signature acts of Congress and the Clinton
administration +IBM- the Personal
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of
1996, the law that
ended the federal guarantee of welfare payments. Much of
the congressional
debate and news coverage at the time focused on the broad
policy and political
implications of the new law.
Officials have not publicized their ability to obtain
financial information because
they do not want to alert delinquents to the ability of
enforcement workers to seize
or freeze financial assets, according to Michael Kharfen,
spokesman for the federal
Administration for Children and Families, which
administers the program.
+ACI-We're setting aside some of the courtesies in order to
accomplish what we're trying
to do,+ACI- said Kharfen, who described the network as an
+ACI-unprecedented, vast
amount of information that is updated constantly.+ACI-
He added: +ACI-This is about getting financial support to the
kids.+ACI-
A Boost for Some
When welfare reformers on Capitol Hill and the White House
approved the system
in 1996, their aim was to cut down welfare spending by
boosting child-support
payments.
They had in mind people such as Stephanie Dudley and her
son Robert, who live in
Farmington, Minn. Robert's father had split up with Dudley
shortly after the boy
was born and drifted from place to place. He owed +ACQ-350 a
month in child-support
payments, but it was hard tracking him down and getting
him to pay.
Officials found Robert's father +IBM- and then started
withholding money from his
paycheck +IBM- after a new employer in Pennsylvania reported
him to the network. +ACI-I
literally was living from check to check,+ACI- Dudley said. +ACI-I
mean, that money literally
put shoes on the kid's feet, helped pay the rent.+ACI-
Kathy Robins of Tazewell, Va., and her 7-year-old son,
Dwight, never received
court-ordered child support until the system turned up his
father in North Carolina.
Now she gets about +ACQ-120 a month, money she plans to use to
pay for a babysitter
this summer. +ACI-It'll help,+ACI- she said. +ACI-I mean, it's better
than I was getting before,
which was nothing.+ACI-
Child-support advocates contend that fears about privacy
are overblown when
weighed against such successes.
As of 1997, the latest year for which figures available,
more than 7.4 million
delinquents owed more than +ACQ-43 billion in past child
support. The system has
helped boost support payments from +ACQ-12 billion in 1996 to
+ACQ-14.4 billion last year,
officials said. And in 1997, the burgeoning system helped
enforcement programs
locate more than 1.2 million delinquents.
The system is essentially an electronic dragnet. It
collects the names, Social
Security numbers and other data about every newly hired
employee in the nation
from employers, who also must provide pay reports for most
wage-earning adults.
States ship along the names and other identifying
information of people who
receive state unemployment insurance.
The Administration for Children and Families, a part of
the Department of Health
and Human Services, serves as a sort of clearinghouse that
automatically matches
all of that information against a file of nearly 12
million child support cases to locate
parents obligated to pay support.
Then the agency provides information about those parents +IBM-
no matter whether
they are behind on payments +IBM- to the appropriate state
enforcement workers. The
idea is to track the parents across state lines.
Supporters of the system note that Congress explicitly
restricted access to it. Those
authorized to use the information include the Social
Security Administration, which
can use the directory of new hires to verify unemployment
reports+ADs- the Treasury
Department, which can use it to cross-reference
tax-deduction claims+ADs- and
researchers, who gain access only to anonymous data.
Next month, financial institutions that operate in
multiple states +IBM- such as Crestar
Financial Corp., Charles Schwab +ACY- Co. and the State
Department Federal Credit
Union +IBM- will begin comparing a list of more than 3 million
known delinquents
against their customer accounts. Under federal law, the
institutions are obligated to
return the names, Social Security numbers and account
details of delinquents they
turn up.
The Administration for Children and Families will then
forward that financial
information to the appropriate states. For security
reasons, spokesman Kharfen
said, the agency will not mix the financial data with
information about new hires,
wages and the like. Bank account information will be
deleted after 90 days.
In a test run this spring, Wells Fargo +ACY- Co. identified
72,000 customers whom states
have identified as delinquents. NationsBank Corp. found
74,000 alleged delinquents
in its test.
Later this year, smaller companies that operate only in
one state will be asked to
perform a similar service. Officials say most of these
institutions will compare their
files against the government's. But some operations that
don't have enough
computing power +IBM- such as small local banks, credit unions
and securities firms +IBM-
will hand over lists of customers to state officials for
inspection. States can then
administratively freeze the accounts.
In California, more than 100 financial institutions have
already handed over lists of
all their depositors to state officials, including names,
Social Security numbers and
account balances, a state official said.
+ACI-This is a major leap forward,+ACI- said Nathaniel L.
+ACI-Nick+ACI-
Young Jr., director of
child-support enforcement in Virginia, who estimates that
more than 200,000 Virginia
parents owe up to +ACQ-1.6 billion in past support. +ACI-We are
now into the electronic age.+ACI-
A New Standard
Civil liberties activists say it would be a mistake to
consider the system solely in
terms of finding bad parents and making them pay up. They
worry that the network
+IBM- a massive expansion of earlier child-support efforts +IBM-
sets a new standard for data
surveillance by using computers to cross-reference
hundreds of millions of
personal records about Americans.
Over the past quarter-century, since the Privacy Act was
enacted in 1974, the
federal government has tried to place limits on how its
officials could compare
databases to find or profile people. And in general, the
government was supposed
to limit data collection about people who paid taxes,
received a federal benefit,
served in the military or tangled with the judicial
system.
Critics say this new effort leaps beyond those practices
by systematically creating
centralized files about workers, wages and families, and
sifting through those files
to find a relatively small number of suspected deadbeats.
The new registry of child-support cases, for example, now
requires the names of all
parents and children involved, even if they do not receive
public assistance or ask
for help in getting a problem resolved. The registry has
information about nearly 12
million families.
There is also concern about the government's reliance on
private employers and
financial institutions to watch citizens. A proposal last
year to require banks to
routinely track customer transactions for signs of
criminal activity prompted an
outpouring of protest. Regulators ditched the plan, called
Know Your Customer,
this spring after acknowledging they had misstepped.
Critics say this system in essence asks banks and other
financial companies to do
the same thing. +ACI-It really starts to blur that line
between the government and the
private sector,+ACI- said Deirdre Mulligan, staff counsel at
the Center for Democracy
and Technology, a privacy and civil liberties advocacy
group in the District.
A review of the swift development of the system has turned
up still other questions
about whether the government paid enough attention to
privacy +IBM- particularly at a
time when the issue has become a flash point in public
policy debates across the
country.
As the system was phased in, officials posted federally
required notices only in the
Federal Register. No additional information has been added
to W-4 forms that
people must fill out when taking a new job.
Linda Ricci, a spokeswoman for the Office of Management
and Budget, defended
the approach. She said people received notice when the
program was publicly
debated by Congress before its approval in 1996. She said
existing language on the
W-4 forms +ACI-makes clear the data will be shared with law
enforcement for a variety of
purposes.+ACI-
In addition to the issues raised by the GAO about the
security of computer systems
gathering and transmitting personal information, the
systems in about a dozen
states also have not been certified by federal officials
as meeting security and
privacy guidelines.
But government officials say they are confident the
security is adequate. Ricci
noted that the GAO based its report on a private audit
conducted at the request of
the Social Security Administration. It found no security
breaches, she said, and the
agency has taken many steps to address concerns.
Officials in OMB and the Administration for Children and
Families sought to allay
fears about mistakes. While acknowledging they have no
idea about the likely rate
of errors because no study was conducted, officials said
the program verifies the
accuracy of any Social Security numbers before sending
data along to the states.
In addition, officials said, individuals in every state
will have an opportunity to
appeal administrative actions. Virginia, for instance,
will give parents up to 10 days
before seizing assets, a state official said.
Critics wonder what might happen to someone who is away on
vacation or
business. +ACI-A Social Security number is not a bullet-proof
identifier. There are
always going to be mistakes,+ACI- said Mary J. Culnan, a
business professor at
Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, who
drew an analogy to
problems with the accuracy of credit reports in the early
1990s.
Finally, the operation appears to be at odds with the
Clinton administration's recent
push to make privacy a priority. Last month, Clinton
called on banks and other
financial institutions to give consumers more control over
how their information is
gathered and used. +ACI-President Clinton believes that
consumers deserve notice and
choice about the use of their personal information,+ACI- said
a White House memo
about the event.
Ricci said the administration distinguishes between data
collection efforts by
government for issues such as child support and those of
business. +ACI-There's no
opting out for law enforcement. Individuals don't have an
option about paying
taxes or court-ordered child support,+ACI- she said. +ACI-That's
just the law.+ACI-
Critics Unappeased
The assurances of such officials do little to assuage the
fears of people who worry
about the potential ills of having a government that
closely monitors its citizens.
Taylor Burke, vice president of Burke +ACY- Herbert Bank +ACY-
Trust Co. in Alexandria,
said he doesn't believe banks should be asked to watch
their customers so closely
on behalf of the government. +ACI-We're all good citizens. But
it doesn't mean we spy
on our neighbors,+ACI- Burke said. +ACI-It's really scary.+ACI-
Such anxieties have been underscored by mistakes
child-support enforcement
workers have made in recent years. Last year, officials in
Virginia had to apologize
to 2,300 parents for misidentifying them as delinquent and
announcing they would
lose their hunting and fishing licenses. Officials
attributed the mistake to a
computer programming error. +ACI-We're not perfect,+ACI- a state
official said at the time.
California officials also misidentified hundreds of men
after it began the federally
mandated, data-driven crackdown on deadbeats. In some
cases, they confused men
who had similar names.
+ACI-In my estimation, this is going to be nothing more than a
huge invasion of
privacy,+ACI- said James Dean of Oshkosh, Wis., who was unable
to get a fishing
license because he refused to provide his Social Security
number.
Connie White, the system-development manager for the
Virginia division of Child
Support Enforcement, said she understands such qualms. But
she believes the
system is ultimately in the best interests of society. +ACI-I
have problems with the Big
Brother concept myself,+ACI- White said. +ACI-But the need for
people to support their
children far outweighs their need for privacy.+ACI-
Wade Horn, a former official in the Administration for
Children and Families, agrees
about the need to improve child support. But he is far
from certain about the right
balance between government action and individual privacy.
+ACI-What we're now going to do is put a system into place
that will track the earnings
and comings and goings of the entire adult population of
the U.S.,+ACI- said Horn, head
of a fathers' rights group in Maryland. +ACI-In a free
society, we should always be on
the lookout for the possibility we do harm through good
intentions.+ACI-
+AKk- 1999 The Washington Post Company
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