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A privacy advocate has filed a lawsuit challenging a new Virginia law prohibiting citizens from disseminating Social Security numbers obtained from government records posted online.
American Civil Liberties Union lawyers filed the lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Richmond on behalf of Betty "BJ" Ostergren. The lawsuit claims the new law, scheduled to take effect July 1, violates the First Amendment.
Ostergren has obtained the Social Security numbers of many prominent people from government Web sites to demonstrate how the government fails to protect individuals' privacy. She says the General Assembly targeted her with the new law rather than address the real problem.
A spokesman for the attorney general's office said lawyers they were reviewing the case and had no immediate comment.
If I find out someone published my ssn on the web, they'll have a lot more to worry about than a new state law!
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