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.

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Government records for the people, by the people and of the people

People need access to information about people they wish to deal with in the United States, and they are all available, sake kept and preserved over the decades as government records for the people. To choose employees, tenants or business partners, a background search becomes necessary to avoid future problems. Corporations usually access information from the government records for people primarily to gain a more competitive edge in the marketplace over their rivals or before dealing with another corporation.

They require some relevant information on them before getting through a deal or even before selling goods to them.

Information becomes vital to know if they their financial records are good and solvent or whether there had been any court cases against them for non-payment of dues. Small businessmen are always at a disadvantage when dealing with bigger corporations and government records contain information about the conduct of the corporations.

Information about people or citizens of the US is contained in government records. All law abiding citizens have to disclose all information about themselves to the government. Important events like birth, marriage, court cases and rulings, deaths in the family and diving license are all relevant information including social security number, contained in government records. It is government records for people as they can access the information whenever they want.

Real test of a government in a democracy like the US lies in maintaining a balance between the right to information enjoyed by the people of the US and the right to privacy which is considered equally valuable and important.

Government cannot sacrifice one for the other. Government records for the people contain information that they may need at some point of time. People of the US have grand parents who served in the World Wars or great grand parents who took part in the civil war.

Information like these may be required by the people any time in their lives. Scholars or social scientists frequently need access to historical records of places and monuments that they are researching on. Upfront and credible information is the key to their completion of a cutting edge research project. Others may be in search of a missing link in their family tree that they may be drawing to leave a record for their future generation.

Also, there may be others involved in writing books or articles interest and of great historical import. They may require records from the archives for their topic. Filmmakers too have an interest while doing historical or period films to access archives for long lost information. Government records for people are exhaustive in information but privacy is another factor that has been an issue in recent years as access to the social security number of an individual is laden with high risks. Laws are being toyed with in the US for the safety of personal information of
the people. 

Technorati Tags: civil war records, US Government Records