Secret library files!? Now there’s a headline that caught my eye! Unfortunately, it’s not as interesting as you might think. Up in Milwaukee dozens of files containing confidential medical billing information, including Social Security numbers and addresses, were left in a Milwaukee public library meeting room last week by an investigator for the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit who failed to retrieve them despite a phone call by library officials alerting her to the situation.
“I have worked for the library for six years and I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Jan Butchart, a library service assistant at the Capitol branch library, 3969 N. 74th St. “It upset me because this is personal information, and anyone could have walked in and gotten it.”
Shred it
I would shred it if she didn’t pick it up in a timely fashion. Why the hell are they even removing it from their office?
Actually I would probably call the inspector general for the agency and insist that they take it into their care, custody and control. If they refuse to do that call the police and give it to them as abandoned property so it can be stored in a secured enviornment.
That will of course lead to sanctions against the person who left it, just as it should.