Michelle Norton
Staff Writer
New legislation before Congress designed to protect the privacy of individuals could create potential problems for University of Houston officials.
Introduced by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, the Protection Privacy Act would prohibit the use of Social Security Numbers for identification purposes.
If passed, the bill would require any organization not associated with the Social Security Administration, including UH, to abandon use of the numbers by Jan. 1, 2000.
Created out of a growing concern for the privacy of the individual, the act restricts the SSN to its original function as designated by the Social Security Act of 1934: administering the system.
To date, more than 40 authorized uses of the SSN have been approved by Congress, authorizations that advocates of the proposed law argue have paved the way for misuse of personal information.
Paul designed the bill to orchestrate a campaign to head off the growing use of the SSN as national identification. "As the SSN has evolved into a de facto national ID number, Americans are exposed to risk from fraud," he said, adding that therisk is growing exponentially.
One of the central problems surrounding the bill, however, is the time limit it dictates for the organizations to discontinue use of the SSN for identification purposes.
That time frame is what could cause problems for universities like UH, which have used SSNs to identify students, faculty and staff for years.
The numbers are used in almost every sector of the university and are vital in the systems used to keep track of the transferring, admitting and employing of students, administering payroll and keeping class rolls.
"Everything gets linked by the SSN, from transcripts to financial aid," explained Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management Ed Apodaca.
Perhaps the number's primary purpose on the UH campus is student identification, where it is used, among other things, to keep track of potentially confusing situations. "We use the SSN ... in identifying students with the same names," explained Juanita Virgin, an office assistant for Human Resources.
The SSN is also used in the VIP telephone registration system. Students can access their grades, enroll in classes, order transcripts, purchase parking permits, insurance and yearbooks via phone by entering their birth dates and SSNs.
Services like that raise security questions, however. Mike Sullivan, a spokesman for Paul, explained that anyone can access a student's information simply by obtaining his or her SSN. He cited an incident in which a student was the victim of a prank played by others who had access to his number.
"A boy at a university was delayed in his graduation when a group of boys got a hold of (his) SSN number and changed his class schedule to nothing but P.E. classes," Sullivan said.
To eliminate some of those problems, Sullivan suggested allowing students to create a personal identification number similar to those used with ATM cards.
"By doing this, only the person who fashioned the number would have access to it," he said.
While UH officials have not formally addressed the processes that would be needed to make the transition to a new system, they have taken several steps that might lead the way to a comprehensive plan.
The Cougar OneCard is one example of those steps. On the new cards, students are identified with a 16-digit International Standardization Organization number. According to James Bradley, manager of Information Services, this number could be used to create computer accounts for students and staff, thereby eliminating another use of the SSN.
However, Sullivan found a problem with this system: Anyone can gain access to an individual's card and get the number from it, which leads back to the central problems with identification-number privacy.
Some UH officials say there is no need for a transition to a new system. "UH has never had any problems with others stealing their identification," said Registrar Mario Lucchesi. "Students are aware of what information they are to keep private."
Paul said the problem addressed in the bill is not whether students are careful with their information, but how criminals are gaining access to the information through the databases of government-funded organizations.
"Many private organizations have begun using the SSN as well, further opening the door to abuse as the ID drifts further and further from its original purpose," he said. "By obtaining a person's SSN and birth date, criminals can obtain credit cards, birth certificates, drivers' licenses and more."
While the privacy act did not pass its introduction as an amendment to the Texas Higher Education Bill, it did receive 150 votes. Such a high voter percentage encouraged Paul to try again by adding the bill onto a bill for medical privacy.
"This would not only guarantee the liberty of the individual, but the privacy of the individual as well," Sullivan said. The bill is expected to pass its second time around.