Background

Various public records in the United States contain Social Security numbers (SSNs) and other personal identifying information that could be used to commit fraud and identity theft. In recent years, record keepers in some localities have been maintaining electronic images of their records that can be easily transferred to other parties in bulk quantities or made available through the Internet. To learn more about the availability and use of these records, GAO conducted a study to determine the extent, reasons, and to whom records that may contain SSNs are available in bulk and online; as well as measures taken to protect SSNs that may be contained in these records. Specifically, we surveyed a sample of county record keepers, including those from 97 of the counties with the largest populations, and a random selection of 150 of the remaining counties. We obtained a response rate of 88.9 percent. A more detailed discussion of our scope and methodology is contained in our report "Social Security Numbers: Social Security Numbers are Widely Available in Bulk and Online Records, but Changes to Enhance Security are Occurring" GAO-08-1009R (Washington, D.C.: September 19, 2008). This e-publication supplements our report by presenting the item by item results of our web-based survey of county record keepers. We administered the survey from March through May 2008 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

Instructions for Viewing this Survey

Special Viewing Instructions

• For most of this survey, we report the percentage of respondents who should have answered a particular question assuming they followed skip patterns. However, for question B, question 1, and question 3, we report answers about the entire population of respondents - not only those respondents who encountered the question in the survey. This enables us to present information about the population as a whole as opposed to the subpopulation that skipped to a particular question. For these three questions, we report the percentages as they appear in the report, disregarding skip patterns in the survey that would have excluded some participants.
• We do not report data for question 23 because many counties did not provide a response.
• Due to rounding, some percentages may not add to 100%

How to View The Surveys

• Click on the Table of Contents link located in the lower right of this screen. To read to the bottom of the screen, you may need to use your scroll bar on the right side of this screen.
• The first screen in the survey is an introduction and general information that was sent to and viewed by recipients of the survey. There are no survey results to view on this screen. This screen is for information only and you may by-pass it by clicking on Next located at the bottom of the screen in the lower right.
• The survey may have links to allow respondents to bypass inapplicable questions (skip patterns). While these were active links during the data collection period, they have now been disabled.
• When a respondent wrote a narrative response to a question, we sometimes present the percent of respondents making a comment.

How to View the Responses for Each Question

• To view the responses to each question, click on the question number (Links to survey questions will look like this: 1., etc.).
• After viewing the responses to each question, click on the "x" in the upper right corner of your screen to close that window and return to the questionnaire.

How to Return to a Page That You Previously Visited

• To return to the last screen you viewed, click the Previous button on the lower right corner of the screen.
• Click the Next button to advance to the next screen.

How to Make the Font Larger on Your Screen

• You can make the font larger by changing your browser setting. For example, on Internet Explorer you can change the font size by going to View and selecting Text Size.

Contact Information?

• If you have questions concerning these data, please contact Daniel Bertoni at (202)512-7215 or by email Daniel Bertoni.