I have now returned your Social Security numbers

Two polite and very earnest men from the U.S. Labor Department appeared right on time at my front door yesterday afternoon, flashed official government ID cards, and took away more than 500 pages of agency documents that included names and Social Security numbers of scores of current and former Gannett employees. I had received the documents a week before, after filing a federal Freedom of Information Act request for the company's latest annual report on its pension plan.

Soon after, the agency read here about what turned out to be an inadvertent failure to redact that private information -- a right extended to the government under the FOIA. I never expected nor wanted the information anyway, so decided it made sense to hand over the documents in return for a new, redacted set. (Plus, I avoid paying $80.10 in copying charges -- money I can ill afford to spend these days.) I also assured the men that I didn't make any copies of the documents.

Now, comes the hard part for the Labor department: I believe they're now attempting to contact each of the employees whose Social Security numbers were released, to let them know about the snafu.

Earlier: As pension assets fell, 24 advisers got $13.1 million

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[Image: Elvis Aron Presley's Social Security card]