Signing the Reminder on Safeguarding PII:

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 (Employees please read on your own time, breaks, lunch or before or
 after work)
 
     Dear Local Presidents and Union Activists,
 
     The union has learned that management is trying to get employees
 to sign an Acknowledgement Statement like the one they try to get
 employees to sign for systems access and the sanctions policy. Please
 feel free to distribute to employees within your jurisdiction.
 
     Dear SSA Employees,
 
     The union learned today that management is going ask all
 employees to sign an "Acknowledgement Statement" that you know and
 understand everything required of you with regard to PII. The cover
 email from Linda Mc Mahon states that "..each employee should be asked
 to sign the "Acknowledgement Statement". If you sign, you are
 indicating that you fully and completely understand all the
 information there is on PII policy. Protecting PII is extremely
 important, the problem is that if you sign the "Statement" and
 accidentally violate the policy or misunderstand the policy acting in
 good faith just doing your  job, management will to use your signature
 on the "Acknowledgment Statement" as proof that you fully knew and
 understood the policy and acted knowingly, willfully, and with full
 knowledge.
 
     HOW MANY DAYS OF PAY WILL YOU BET THAT YOU FULLY AND COMPLETELY
 UNDERSTAND SSA'S PII POLICIES?
 
     QUESTION: Can you take an EAS write back home that management
 has given you?
     Can you take it home if you blot out the first name and first
 two sequences of the SSN? The Region IX Security Officer says "yes" -
 that is proper sanitization, but conflicting information exists on
 many EAS write back sheets, indicating 'no". The EAS Write back sheets
 say  "Notice; THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE
 INFORMATION (PII). The document may not be removed from SSA-secured
 space, either electronically or in paper form, until you have ensured
 that all of the PII on the document is illegible/unreadable."
 
     So the answer is yes and no. The EAS write back says you must
 ensure "all of the PII on the document is illegible/unreadable", that
 would mean all name and SSN data. So if you want to rebut some write
 backs at home and follow the Security Officer's directive sent to all
 Region IX employees (for example) and leave the last name of the
 claimant and the last 4 of the SSN, and take the write back home, you
 have followed regional policy but violated another policy of unknown
 origin - and management could fire you - read their own instructions.
     WHAT IS YOUR REGION'S POLICY ON THE ACCEPTABLE SANITIZATION OF
 PII PRIOR TO REMOVAL FROM THE OFFICE?  
 
     There are many other instances where the policies are unclear,
 conflicting, or may not have been communicated to you. Are you
 convinced that you have all the information you need to know about PII
 and fully understand it all? Willing to bet your job?
 
     The union advises employees to request all instructions,
 guidance, policies, regulations, and all other information they are
 expected to know to be complying with SSA's PII policies. DO NOT sign
 anything until you have read every document the agency has on PII and
 fully understand it. IT APPEARS YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO SIGN. The only
 reason management wants you to sign the "Acknowledgement Statement" is
 so they can use it to discipline you. We support all of management's
 efforts to educate employees on PII, but do not support any effort to
 have you sign a statement that can be used to suspend or fire you.
 
     If management calls you into a meeting to discuss the PII
 policies or to sign the "Acknowledgement Statement" tell management
 this is a formal discussion and the union has the right to attend.
 Sign at your own peril. From what the Deputy Commissioner of
 Operations says, they may ask you to sign but this is not an order. If
 you have questions or concerns, contact your AFGE union
 representative.