Is Big Brother loose on the Web?

WASHINGTON -- So far as I know, I've never met Candido Torres, although we seem to share the same Social Security number. This news came to light by dint of a $39.95 investment in USsearch.com, which bills itself on the Internet as "the worldwide leader in public record information."

Doing my duty as a reporter, I snooped on myself. But USSearch promises to deliver the goods on any name you supply -- accessing the same "public record databases used by the FBI, law enforcement agencies and private investigators."

The federal Privacy Act of 1974 casts doubt on whether Social Security numbers are a matter of public record. However, the number is being used so widely for identification, both inside and outside the government, that invasion of privacy concerns appear moot.

Yale University, for example, uses Social Security numbers for student IDs. Several states and the District of Columbia also use it for their drivers' licenses, while others cull the number from application forms. A company named Image Data has signed a $1.5 million contract with the U.S. Secret Service to create a national identity database by digitizing existing drivers' licenses and other personal data, beginning with a pilot project in three states.

The company's boss, Robert Houvener, ridicules the idea that there are legitimate privacy issues at stake. Noting that he has personally been a victim of "identity fraud," Houvener says the nationwide photo file will be targeted at the "identity criminals" who he estimates suck billions of dollars a year out of the economy.

But privacy advocates fear turning Big Brother loose. Says Marc Rotenberg, director of Electronic Privacy Information Center: "This is not a database that people can easily opt out of. You have to give up your photograph when you get a driver's license."

A Web site dubbed drivingrecords.com offers to obtain the goods on anybody you care to snoop on -- anywhere but California. For $30, you're promised many items, including the lowdown on "DUI's, moving violations, tickets, accidents and wreckless (sic) driving."

The slippery slope began to slip in 1943 when President Franklin Roosevelt, worried about Nazi spies, told federal agencies to use Social Security numbers in their record-keeping systems. Since 1961, the Internal Revenue Service has been using it as a taxpayer ID number. Now the Internet, which is good at searching records, has dropped the privacy bar further. The same snoops who told me about my apparent dual use with Candido Torres also told me that they had searched, among others, databanks that held my military records and various drug enforcement and firearms lists.

As privacy barriers plummet, what should you do if you find that somebody is using your Social Security number?

The feds suggest that every few years you get a copy of your file from the Social Security Administration, thereby ensuring that contributions are being correctly recorded. The needed form can be printed from the agency Web site or ordered by calling (800) 772- 1213.

I'm checking up. Perhaps Candido Torres will too.

Andrew J. Glass is a Washington-based columnist for Cox Newspapers. His e-mail address is aglass(

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