[Via Slashdot, even though they incorrectly attribute the whole thing to OMB] Uh oh. The New York Times has an article today about FedSpending.org which unbeknownst-to-most included thousands of social security numbers. Apparently the data came from USDA, via Census (the FAADS system), and was imported into FedSpending.org.

This news highlights exactly the kind of issue that concerns agencies that need to comply with FFATA, through which FederalSpending.gov will be populated with data. Most agencies have excellent privacy policies now but clearly there’s a need to go back to older systems and scrub them of questionable or problematic data.

[Update 4/24/2007 9:13 EDT: Jason Miller’s also published about this story on FCW and GCN now. Apparently USDA is offering fraud protection/credit checking services to all those impacted by this incident.]