PURPOSE OF THIS POLICY

CSU permits disclosure of an employee or student's Social Security number only as authorized by law.

POLICY STATEMENT

Social Security numbers of CSU employees constitute “personnel” information under the Colorado Open Records Act and cannot be released to anybody other than the persons to whom they relate, and, as may be necessary, their supervisors.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) prohibits recipients of federal funds, such as CSU, from disclosing the Social Security numbers of enrolled students except in certain circumstances. Colorado law, C.R.S. 23-5-127 also prohibits institutions of higher education from using a student's SSN (or part of student's SSN) as the student's primary identifier under most circumstances. CSU does not use SSNs as primary identifiers for students. See the link below for the IT Security Policy governing private information, including SSNs.

REFERENCES

IT Security