Is my employer legally required to tell me if they lost my personal file which would include my SSN, address and date of birth?
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Is my employer legally required to tell me if they lost my personal file which would include my SSN, address and date of birth?
my employer moved recently and is asking for a copy of my SS card again. I’m afraid they may have lost it. Are they required to inform me if so? Are they required to offer me some kind of credit monitoring package?
Asked on August 4, 2011 New York
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
No, there is no legal requirement to tell you that they lost this information. Nor are they generally required to offer you a credit monitoring package, though IF you sue them, seeking to force them to pay for credit monitoring, and you can prove that they were at fault in losing the information (e.g. that they were unreasonably careless, or negligent, in some fashion), then you might be able to get them to pay...though the cost of a lawsuit would more than negate the value of having them pay for credit monitoring.
If it turns you that your ID is stolen and you suffer damage, if there is evidence that it was because of their negligence, you may in that case be able to sue them for the losses you incur, though proving causality--i.e. that they are why your ID was stolen--may be difficult or impossible.
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