"Authorities have agreed for now not to enforce a new state law aimed at Betty "BJ" Ostergren, an activist who has been fighting to keep Social Security numbers private.

In her campaign to alert the public, Ostergren has posted the numbers of some state officials on her Web site, www.TheVirginiaWatchdog.com.

Identity thieves and others can use Social Security numbers to perpetrate frauds.

Ostergren obtained the numbers from government Web sites.

The new law bars the dissemination of Social Security numbers from any public records, even ones on government Web sites.

Ostergren is challenging its constitutionality.

The law was to take effect today, the same day court clerks must make land records available on the Internet, though some already have.

Land records could include divorce decrees or other documents with Social Security numbers. To gain access to the records, one needs to register and pay a small fee.

Ostergren, who lives in Hanover County, filed a complaint in federal court June 11.

She sought an injunction against the state from enforcing the law against disseminating the numbers in a hearing before U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne yesterday.

Before Payne ruled on the question, James V. Ingold, a senior assistant Virginia attorney general, said his office agreed not to enforce the law against Ostergren until the matter is resolved. The judge indicated yesterday that he is concerned about some of the issues involved.

"The state is doing something that is extremely troublesome to her and to me and it ought to be to every citizen," said Payne, referring to requiring the information to be available on the Internet without forcing the clerks to redact Social Security numbers.

Payne asked Ingold why, if the law requires clerks to remove the Social Security numbers before making them public, the state is not making them do so. Ingold said the cost of the work may be a factor.

The ACLU said the General Assembly passed a law requiring the information be taken off documents in 2007, but it did not take effect because money was not appropriated to do.

Ingold also said citizens and/or their agents, not the state, placed the Social Security numbers -- which have been available to anyone willing to pull records at their local courthouse -- in the public domain.

In any case, Ingold said, "we will admit that this is on the frontier of Internet law."

Payne asked Ostergren's lawyer, Rebecca K. Glenberg, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, why Ostergren finds it necessary to post Social Security numbers on her Web site. "All that does is exacerbate the very problem she says she's committed to stopping," he said.

Glenberg said, "It's punch, . . . It's shock value, if you will."

Payne asked that if Ostergren were fighting child pornography, whether it would be permissible for her to post child pornography on her site.

Glenberg said the government isn't making child pornography available on the Internet. The ACLU and Ostergren say they favor laws barring the posting of Social Security numbers on government Web sites accessible to the public.

However, they said the government cannot punish people for disseminating information the government makes available.

Payne set a hearing on the matter for July 24, should he decide a hearing is needed." (Frank Green, Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 1, 2008)