Public employee privacy needs protection

Regarding the recent article about state worker’s birth dates (Jan. 29): No political group, newspaper or scammer deserves to have information on my birth date. I was previously employed at a local school district that was fooled into releasing all sorts of my personal information that could be used to steal my identity. Fortunately, I understand they did not release my birth date in that data breach, which could have made it much easier to steal my identity.

I now work at The Evergreen State College, which by the way is a state institution, and I have great reason to be concerned about my birth date becoming public. This is not a matter of government transparency; it is a basic norm regarding privacy. For some simple selfish reason, I am not wanting some nefarious person to obtain my identity and then royally mess up my life.

Protect all public employees, not just state employees, from having their birth dates released to the general public. This issue is not an overblown privacy concern as it was stated in that article. I’m confident all those people impacted by the Olympia School District data breach would agree with me on this issue. I would also like to see privacy provisions in place when it comes to voters files.

This story was originally published February 14, 2018 at 3:20 PM with the headline "Public employee privacy needs protection."