In May, a laptop was stolen from a Veterans Administration employee that contained the Social Security numbers and other private information of over 28 million veterans. Just this month, a laptop was stolen from an employee of the Florida Deptartment of Transportation that contained the names, addresses, birthdates, and Social Security numbers of 133,000 Florida residents.

This is a reminder that without proper authorization, electronically storing Social Security numbers or other non-public information on computers or other electronic media (CD/DVD, thumb drives, removable media, etc.) is strictly prohibited by University policy.

Only under certain circumstances will authorization be granted to electronically store Social Security numbers. Anyone who has been granted authorization must have a Social Security Number Usage Request form signed and on file with the University Privacy Officer.

Requests are typically approved only when the SSN is required by law and where special protection, such as encryption, can be applied. If you store old grade reports or other files that contain sensitive data, you must either remove the SSN or sensitive fields from the file or delete it entirely.

If you have a legitimate business or legal reason to electronically store Social Security numbers, you may obtain a Social Security Number Usage Request form from our website at: http://ssn2tuid.temple.edu/SSNUsageRequest.pdf

The form requires approval and signatures from the requestor, the requestor’s supervisor, the requestor’s Vice President or Provost, and the Vice President for Computer and Information Services. Once the form has the appropriate approvals, it should be sent to my office, at 705 Conwell Hall.

If you have any questions about this requirement, please do not hesitate to contact my office at 215-204-7088.

Thank you.