Mark DeLaVega, of Richardson, Texas, says he was fired from MCI for refusing to use an order-entry system which would have exposed his social security number to every other employee using the system.

“I verified with the trainer that my SSN would be visible to any employee using that system to change an order I had previously installed or altered,” Mr. DeLaVega said. “I warned my boss early and said, ‘Listen, I can’t do that. I would be remiss in my responsibility to me and my family if I just allowed this to occur.’”

He said his manager told him that the company was scheduled to fix the Social Security number exposure problem next year.

“He gave me an ultimatum of performing the work or tendering my resignation,” Mr. DeLaVega said. “I told him that I was not tendering my resignation and that I would consider this either a layoff or termination, but I would not give a verbal resignation.”

His supervisor eventually told him to turn in his employee identification badge, which Mr. DeLaVega interpreted “as a termination.” — Dallas Morning News

What’s most interesting about this is that MCI uses randomly assigned identifiers instead of the social security number for its offshore and outsourced employees. U.S. employees’ social security numbers are, therefore, exposed to people working in India and the Philippines, for instance.

Earlier this year MCI stopped collecting full social security numbers from its customers and hid from view existing social security numbers on file, but employees with access to the systems above can still see the entire social security numbers of existing customers. Most U.S. employees, and many offshore and outsourced employees, have access to this information.