Court approves posting of SSNs.

• Position: PRIVACY - Social Security numbers - Brief article

A federal appeals court said it's legal for a Virginia privacy advocate, B.J. Ostergren, to post public records containing the Social Security numbers (SSNs) of private citizens, as well as government officials, on her website.

Ostergren posts the information on The Virginia Watchdog.com to highlight her message that governments are mishandling SSNs and to pressure them to fix the problem. In its ruling, the court supported her claim that a state law prohibiting anyone from making SSNs available to the public violated her First Amendment rights.

In 2008, the Virginia General Assembly passed a law banning Ostergren's practice, saying the state's interest in preventing identity theft eclipses her First Amendment rights, the Associated Press reported. But a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals took Ostergren's side.

"The unredacted SSNs on Virginia land records that Ostergren has posted online are integral to her message," Judge Allyson Duncan wrote in the unanimous opinion. "Indeed, they are her message. Displaying them proves Virginia's failure to safeguard private information and powerfully demonstrates why Virginia citizens should be concerned."

The court said the state can't punish Ostergren for posting on her website the same public records that the govermnent posts on its own, according to the Associated Press (AP).

"Ostergren's...