Who Knows What About You?

We are in the information age. The Internet puts a lot of interesting and valuable information at our fingertips. Where can you get the best deal on a new computer or a car? How can you repair a leaky faucet? Where is Katmandu? What does the Hubble Space Telescope see?

But while you are gathering benign information, do you know what information about you is available for someone else to gather? Do you know how they get it? How about your telephone number, address, place of employment, driver’s license information, mother’s maiden name, and social security number? Unfortunately all of this information is available. Much of it is for sale, some of it is free and some of it is provided by you.

Amy Boyer of Nashua, New Hampshire was unaware that much of her personal information was available and in the hands of a troubled young man who was obsessed with her. She never knew it and had never inadvertently done anything to help him gather information. It wasn’t until 21 year old Liam Youen murdered her and then took his own life, that Amy’s family discovered he had been stalking her for years. They attended the same high school, although Amy didn’t really know him. Also unknown to Amy, Youen set up a Website where, for two years, he wrote about stalking her and his intention to kill her. According to the information he posted on his Website, an Internet company sold Amy’s social security number to Youen. That enabled him to purchase more information about her including her birth date and the address of her workplace. He murdered her as she was leaving work. You can read the entire chilling and tragic story at the site set up by Amy’s family: http://www.amyboyer.org/

As a result of this tragic case, Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut have introduced “S. 2554. A bill to amend title XI of the Social Security Act to prohibit the display of an individual's Social Security number for commercial purposes without the consent of the individual...” The full text of Amy Boyer’s Law, which was introduced on May 15, 2000 can be found by typing Amy Boyer into the search located here: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/r106query.html

Amy’s social security number was the key Youen needed to obtain other information. It’s important to keep your social security number private. In the hands of any criminal your social security number can lead to all kinds of problems. A social security number allows a criminal to assume your identity for the purposes of either opening checking accounts and credit card accounts in your name or using accounts you already have. Some people end up with criminal records because their identities were used by criminals when arrested.

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