Maybe one of the mantras of data protection should be “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” In 2009, Yankees fans enthusiastically threw papers out of the window during the team’s World Series celebratory parade through the Canyon of Heroes. The unshredded papers included files from A.L. Sarroff, Goldman Sachs, and the Bronx Supreme Court, as well as medical test reports, some with identifying information and Social Security numbers.
Now WPIX11 reports that some of the confetti thrown by people in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade had not been sufficiently shredded so as to prevent reconstruction and identification:
That information included social security numbers and banking information for police employees, some of whom are undercover officers.
[…]
“There are phone numbers, addresses, more social security numbers, license plate numbers and then we find all these incident reports from police.”
One confetti strip indicates that it’s from an arrest record, and other strips offer more detail.
A closer look shows that the documents are from the Nassau County Police Department.
[…]
Most significant, the confetti strips identified Nassau County detectives by name. Some of them are apparently undercover. Their social security numbers, dates of birth and other highly sensitive personal information was also printed on the confetti strips
Read more on WPIX11 or watch their news video: