The Social Security Administration shut down its Web site Wednesday after much criticism about the possibility of privacy breaches on a site that allowed wage earners to get a record of their pay history.
"For the next 60 days, we will be conducting public forums in Washington and across the country on this issue," John J. Callahan, acting commissioner of the SSA told a news conference on Wednesday.
The agency said it may reopen the site, which had only been open for about a month, after addressing privacy concerns. The site allowed access to personal pay records and Social Security account information. Visitors had to enter an individual's Social Security number, birth date, state of birth, and mother's maiden name.
The site was shut down after intense media scrutiny this week and a flurry of letters to the agency from members of Congress calling for a review of the online program. Representative Paul Kanjorski (D-Pennsylvania) even said he planned to introduce a bill to prohibit the agency from posting earnings and benefit estimate statements on the Web.
"This has been a lightning rod for privacy," said Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, who added that he is not opposed to the idea of making such sensitive information available online. "There is a larger message here - the issue of people's concerns about the absence of safeguards for private information."
Wage earners will still be able to access their information by sending email, but will receive a reply by snailmail.
"They got clobbered, that's what happened," Rotenberg said of the agency's effort to provide data access.
