14 DAY TRIAL // A woman who used worked for the Department of Education pleaded guilty to one criminal count of unauthorized computer access resulting from illegally accessing confidential student load records.
Charlotte M. Robinson, 46, of Dolton, IL, used to work in the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Division of the Department of Education where her duties involved processing student loan complaints filed with the FSA Office of the Ombudsman.
Due to her job description, Robinson had access to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), the database housing all student loan records at the federal level.
The NSLDS data is confidential and protected under the Privacy Act of 1974, meaning that Department of Education employees are only allowed to access it for official government business.
Prosecutors alleged that between April 2006 and May 2009, Robinson used the database to view the student loan records of hundreds of people, including celebrities, family members and friends, without authorization.
When she admitted to the accusations, Robinson said that her reason for accessing the confidential data was idle curiosity. She is scheduled to be sentenced on February 22, 2011, by U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan E. Cox in the Northern District of Illinois.
This is not the first case of a government employee being convicted as a result of snooping on other people's records out of curiosity.
In January 2009, Dwayne F. Cross, of Upper Marlboro, Md., a former Department of State employee pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized computer access after using the Passport Information Electronic Records System (PIERS) to look at the passport applications of numerous musicians, actors, politicians, athletes, models, journalists, friends, and family members.
Earlier, in December 2008, a separate State Department worker named Lawrence Yontz, was sentenced to 12 months of probation and 50 hours of community service for the same offence.