supadave61:
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Vicki Bartelt:
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08/06/2012 5:21:55 AM EDT
Why in the world would your employer even entertain such a foolish practice?!?!?!? Publish a SS#, DOB, and driver license?!??!! OMG!?!?!?
Has your boss not heard of the almost viral growth of identity theft over the past decade and how serious the problem is? This has caused federal and state laws to be written concerning the protection of employees'personal information (what you listed in your question}.
Some states in the US are more protective of employees, such as CA, MA, NY, WA, and several others. Employees give HR/employers certain information in confidence and with the expectation of privacy. State privacy laws address this. In many states, paychecks must now have SS#s truncated to the last 4 digits, and SS#s cannot be used with the frequency of before. Even health insurance carriers offer alternate IDs instead of using the SS#. Birthdates are not published because of identity theft and federal (e.g., Title VII) and state anti-discrimination laws: making an employee's age or marital status public could cause them to be targets of discrimination for promotions.
Putting such information in a global directory is to circulate it in the public domain, even though it may only be to managers. Any information of this nature that is circulated should have the written permission (uncoerced) of the employee. Some employees are very private and don't want non-work-related information shared globally.
Also, it is important to know what the difference between what is legal/illegal and what is a common sense best HR practice. Neither should betray the trust of the employee.
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