Reports say passport snooping is part of training program

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March 27th, 2008 - Posted by Joe

What initially looked like a case of political impropriety is now turning into a government sponsored privacy debacle which highlights just how vulnerable personal information can be.

Reports began surfacing last week that a State Department contractor had breached the passport records of Sen. Barack Obama. It was later found that the same contractor had also illegally accessed Sen. John Mccain's passport file and that Sen. Hillary Clinton's information had been accessed during a State Department training session last summer. None of these individuals were aware of these security breaches of their personal information until now.

The Associated Press is now reporting that over twenty celebrity passport records had been accessed by contractors. Additionally, it appears that new employees and contractors are encouraged to access passport files as a part of their training regiment.

Passport records include extremely sensitive information, including name, date of birth, address and social security numbers, that could be lead to many forms of identity theft in the wrong hands. The fact that sensitive personal information could be so routinely mismanaged by a government agency should be a wake up call to all of us.

As always, we strongly suggest that consumers consider empowering themselves with an identity theft protection service. Learn more in our free online identity theft protection service comparison.