The need to go public

We applaud State Auditor Auston Johnson for reacting quickly last year when a sting ordered by his office found three-quarters of state surplus computers being readied for public sale contained sensitive personal information.

We just wish he had been more public about this problem at the time. It's easy for public officials to want to keep problems out of the headlines and to discreetly handle issues that, if widely known, might exacerbate potential consequences. But there are few advantages to be gained by keeping things quiet.

First of all, the situation became public, anyway. If Johnson didn't want people who already own state surplus computers to know they may contain sensitive information, that secret now is out. In government, secrets generally get revealed, sooner or later. In this case, even the discreet "letter audits" Johnson sent to seven state department heads were public from the moment they were issued. It just took them awhile to come to light.

More important, however, a thorough public airing can ensure that problems are completely investigated and corrected. In this case, Johnson says procedures were rewritten and surplus computer sales were temporarily stopped until all machines could be properly scrubbed clean of information. These are reasonable and proper responses. They also could have benefited from a more public airing, with a public exchange of ideas about those procedures and a greater sense of accountability.

The information remaining on these machines included Social Security and credit card numbers. It included sensitive information from criminal cases, private photos and even medical data.

The problems were discovered at about the same time that news reports were telling of a stolen Veterans Administration computer that contained thousands of Social Security numbers.

Johnson told a legislative committee about the discovery last week because he wanted its members to know they have nothing to fear from an audit; that his office can handle things quietly. That sounds a lot like what someone in private business would say to a board of directors. Governments, however, are owned by the people. When personal information is at stake (how many computers may have been sold in years past with sensitive information?), the public needs to know.