Social Security Administration disclosed personal info to others.?

Question

Okay this kinda has myself and my family worried. Recently my mother had requested info about herself, my brother and my father about their benefits because my mothers continual health decline and the administration continually cutting and decreasing their benefits, so she can consult her lawyer to receive full benefits due to congestive heart failure, leukemia and her now need to be on oxygen for the remainder of her life, while the SS administration claims she is healthy enough to work (besides the point). Now when the info about the three of them was mailed out, they sent it to a company named "Clearbrook" a center for rehabilitating drug users. Said company opened all three of the letters (and I'm going to assume read) which contained the social security numbers, birth dates, current address of all three of my family members as well as all of their financial information, then put it into one of their personal envelopes without the original envelopes they came in as well as a personally typed apology letter from a company CEO. Should we be worried about the situation, major concern is identity theft because all of that personal info is ripe for the taking? additional info, they personally went to the admin building in Wilkes Barre PA to discuss the matter and were shrugged off and did not want to hear about the matter, as in they wouldn't even talk to them, Called the 1800 number and were hung up on numerous times. Personally I think this is unacceptable and completely unprofessional in their part on handling a serious mistake on their part. What should we do?

Answer 1

What you should do is monitor your credit reports and make sure the ss numbers haven't been used. It sounds like an honest mistake was made and the company CEO did what he could to make it right. Your chances to get to talk to the actual person who sent the forms to the wrong place in error are very slim.



Just have your folks keep an eye on their credit card statements and such. I'll bet it'll all be fine. For the most part people aren't dishonest.

Answer 2

Personally, I think the fact that you got a typed letter from the CEO is a great measure. This company didnt request the information illegally and it wasn't their doing that had the letters sent to them. Most of the time, it is a machine that opens the letters and sorts them. Because their reader could not establish what it was, it was sent to an actual person within the company. If the information gets used and there is a case of identity theft because of the incident then you may have cause for action against the SSA and Clearbrook. If Clearbrook is a smaller company and does not have a reader, the individual in the front office may have believed this to be information in regards to payment of benefits for one of their patients. You probably have better reason to be upset with the SSA than Clearbrook. I am sorry this happened to you but it was at no fault to Clearbrook. Let me ask, what would you like Clearbrook to do? Aside from stating that they wont do anything with the information they found, which is probably what the letter was about, there is nothing for them TO DO, is there? I am sorry you had a poor experience in dealing with the company but to answer your question, you are probably not in too much danger.

Answer 3

What a lie. Read the Reuters article. They are monitoring social media and popular and controversial PUBLIC websites. They aren't collecting personal information. With the number of threats on the life of the president on this forum alone, I think it's within the rhelm of the homeland security's job to look for threats to politicians and our nation. Remember that two big terrorists posted their manifestos onto YouTube just before going on a rampage with a gun.

Answer 4

you have to speak with an agent from ssa.