Jeff Cunningham of KFVS reports:
It was an identity thief’s dream–original birth certificates, social security cards and high school diplomas all found in a dumpster. Heartland News was contacted by a viewer who found the items in a dumpster behind the Armed Forces Recruiting Center on William Street in Cape Girardeau.
We counted dozens of high school diplomas representing students from Chaffee, Perryville, Sikeston, Dexter, Jackson and Cairo. In eight of the diplomas were the birth certificates, social security cards or both.
[…]
Heartland New contacted the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine recruiting offices on William and we received this statement from Air Force Lt. Col. Christopher Byrom:
“A new recruiter to the Cape Girardeau, MO Air Force Recruiting Office was cleaning out old files, and was separating Privacy Act information from non-controlled documents, consistent with rules and procedures taught annually to Air Force members. The recruiter inadvertently missed a limited amount of Privacy Act information while disposing non-controlled information. The Air Force is actively working with the disposal company involved, as well as the media outlet to which these materials were given, to recover any improperly released information. We take the protection of Privacy Act information seriously and will be contacting those individuals whose Privacy Act information was or may have inadvertently been released. We will take corrective actions with respect to this deviation from Air Force regulations.”
And if these records were employment-related and held by a business instead of the military, would any notification have been required? Missouri is one of the majority of states where breach notification laws do not include paper records. Can you hear me now, Congress?