More Government Incompetence

Your tax dollars at work. From the AP:

WASHINGTON - The Census Bureau inadvertently posted personal information from 302 households on a public Internet site multiple times over a five-month period, the bureau said Wednesday.

The information included names, addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and family income ranges, said Ruth Cymber, the agency's director of communications. No
Social Security numbers were posted, and there is no evidence that the data was misused, Cymber said.

But, she added, posting the information violated bureau policies and federal law. ...

... "A breach of this kind is unacceptable," Census Director Charles Louis Kincannon said in a statement. "We are strengthening our internal procedures to further safeguard our data to prevent a recurrence." ...

... The incident comes six months after the Census Bureau acknowledged losing 672 laptop computers since 2001, including 246 that contained personal data. Most of the computers were used by workers gathering survey information in communities.

The sad thing is that you and I are the ones who end up paying for government incompetence. It will be interesting to see if anyone loses his job or, at the very least, is reprimanded for this breach of trust. I won't hold my breath, though.