Washington county mistakenly releases 460,000 partial SSNs

Associated Press

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A Washington county inadvertently released nearly half a million partial Social Security Numbers when responding to a routine public records request in December, according to county officials. The Pierce County Auditor’s Office, which mistakenly released the sensitive information, said in a news release that the error was quickly spotted and that the person who accidentally received the SSN digits deleted them within two hours. In a Jan. 17 letter sent to the 463,110 voters affected, the auditor’s office, apologized and outlined steps those affected can take to protect their private information.