theDataMap

Documenting all the places
personal data goes.

healthDataMap


Legend: with your name, without your name.
Click on a circle above for names of organizations and details of data shared.


The Social Security Administration (SSA) is the independent agency of the Federal Government that administers Social Security (a program consisting of retirement, disability, and survivor benefits).

Disability is administered through SSA, necessitating the collection of health information for you, if you are on disability. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program pays benefits to disabled adults and children who have limited income and resources. SSI benefits also are payable to people 65 and older without disabilities who meet the financial limits.

SSA also determines eligibility for Medicare, the primary payer for health for people over the age of 65 in the United States. SSA has health information for people in, or applying to, this program.

Examples

Social Security Administration had a data breach in 2006, in Georgia. A lawyer working for the Social Security Administration broke a work-at-home agreement and brought a laptop with sensitive information to a conference in Atlanta. The laptop was stolen there. Social Security numbers, names and possibly medical information would have been on the laptop. (228 records involved) [source].

  

Social Security Administration (SSA) had a data breach in 2007, in Wisconsin. Files of disability applicants containing Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers of family members, dates of birth, work history, and detailed medical information were lost/stolen when a telecommuting employee abandoned them in a locked filing cabinet at home after a threat of domestic violence. several of the files were mailed back to the local SSA office. Others were found in a dumpster months later. Four were never recovered. (13 records involved) [source].

  
  

(return to health DataMap)



Copyright © 2012-2016 President and Fellows Harvard University.