14 DAY TRIAL // Last week, Public.Resource.Org, a group that aims at “making government information more accessible,” found that the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) mistakenly published the details of as many as 100,000 Americans on a public website.
Public.Resource.Org found that social security numbers (SSNs) were published to an IRS database for tax-exempt political groups.
The information, which mainly belongs to donors, was removed shortly after the IRS learned of the incident.
IRS representatives have confirmed for FoxNews that the information was inadvertently posted on the website. The agency is currently “assessing the situation and exploring available options.”
“When we were alerted last week that a substantial number of Social Security numbers were posted on IRS.gov in forms filed by section 527 political organizations, the IRS decided out of an abundance of caution to temporarily remove public web access to the records,” the IRS stated.