News Cut: December 6, 2007 Archive

IDS tragedy update

Posted at 7:20 AM on December 6, 2007 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

The manager of the IDS building in Minneapolis sent a letter to tenants today, describing yesterday's terrible tragedy that claimed the life of a workman who was removing snow from the Crystal Court.

Prior to expressing its sympathies to the family of the man, the letter provided an unfortunate -- and probably unintentional -- prominence to this point:

It was necessary to close the entire Crystal Court and skyways following the accident. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

Download letter (pdf).

Comment on this post

Social insecurity

Posted at 8:36 AM on December 6, 2007 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

The theft of a laptop in Minneapolis with 268,000 Social Security numbers confirms the worst fears of privacy advocates who warned us against the growing use of your number as a national identification card.

"They said it was only going to be for the purpose of tracking your Social Security account, and then slowly and quietly it was used for driver's license records, now you have to give it to your bank, all government agencies use it as the identification number, so the original promise that it was only going to be used for one purpose was one of the great lies to the American people."

That was 1996, when Evan Hendricks of the Privacy Times newsletter warned us about the insidious nature of the practice.

Back then, the fear was the government's 1996 Illegal Immigration and Reform Responsibility Act, which requires states to get Social Security numbers from applicants. But far from protecting citizens against illegal immigrants, the practice has led to a privacy sieve, not only by government, but private business.

That was Memorial Blood Center's faux pax. The blood center, which is sending letters to people whose Social Security numbers were ripped off, but has posted nothing about the privacy breach on its Web site, used the number to identify whether people were eligible to give blood. There was a time when we had a better way of identifying ourselves. We'd give our names.

The American Red Cross, for the record, also requires a Social Security number for identification when donating a pint of your finest. But it says a driver's license will do. A year ago, its donors suffered the same fate as those who donated through the Minneapolis blood center.

You're not required to give your Social Security number to private businesses. But they're not required to provide you with any service if you don't.

So far, only California has taken steps to significantly reduce the use of a Social Security number as a national ID card.

In the meantime, 268,000 of you are being asked to call your financial institution to head off the possibility your number will be used to access your accounts.

Guess what their first question will be?

Comment on this post

The fight for Duy Ngo's life

Posted at 1:53 PM on December 6, 2007 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)

Duy Ngo, the Minneapolis cop who was shot by another police officer in 2003, and who settled a lawsuit against the city two weeks ago, is no longer fighting for his life, or the justice he says he was denied. He is still fighting for his reputation.

Ngo's settlement, his allegations of corruption by the department, and the lawsuit filed this week by five African American police officers alleging discrimination, has focused new attention on the department he says he still loves.

It's a department, he says, that has an "epidemic" of blaming the victim. He's got five years of rumors that won't die, 15 bullet holes, and $4.5 million to prove it.

Continue reading "The fight for Duy Ngo's life"