Government social security records
The principal safe keeper of government records, the NARA, does not keep details of social security relating to individuals as they are available in government social security records. Members of the public can have access to government records from various federal government agencies as they are empowered to do so by the Freedom of Information Act.
To prevent agencies from keeping their policies secret and also to make the federal government accountable to the public, records are made available. SSA or the Social Security Administration makes available many documents for public distribution like leaflets about their benefit programs, reports and different press releases. Much of it is available in SSA’s site online. People interested in government social security records can go through their site and look for information they are looking for or whatever they find is interesting.
Government social security records made available by the SSA consists of all administrative staff manuals and instructions to the staff personnel about procedures, policies and interpretations of them that can impact the public. Information that could affect the public is available for viewing and detailed inspection. All other information is not available for public viewing.
There may be an interest in the functioning of the SSA, the people involved, the staff decisions and policies formulated from time to time, their interpretations not available elsewhere are available for public viewing as they do not pose any security risks to an individual. Information like this can be accessed by the public, inspected and copied online or in any field office of the SSA, at the headquarters in Baltimore and at all other offices in the US. People may wonder why public information is being withheld, but they too could be affected if other information that risk intrusion of privacy was made available.
Social security is a critical area and government social security records contain vital personal information of individuals. Anyone other person other than whose personal information is contained in the records is allowed access, it would be invading someone’s privacy and leaving them open to risks of victimization. Crimes relating to
social security tampering is quite high in the US and the main problem is that the victims rarely get to know about it before crimes are committed in their name.
Victims could remain unaware that their personal information contained in government social security records were accessed by people they do not know or someone to whom they would never disclose. SSA operating instructions come in the form of handbooks or reference sources of administrators of social security coverage agreements that are available for inspection in SSA regional offices and in the state capitals.
