As a longtime journalist and a First Amendment lover, I have continuously fought for access to government proceedings and records. In fact, my noisy efforts to obtain full access to the government, particularly to judicial proceedings, have earned me the nickname “Sherry Sunshine.”

But just as strong as the need for access to information about the government is the right of every citizen to protection from the government’s access to information about him.

And in recent years, the need for protection has spread from the government to the private sector, where access to your government required Social Security number has made it possible for marketers to reduce you to a cipher in their marketing schemes-and for thieves to steal your very identity.

The growing crime of identity theft (the fraudulent use of someone else’s personal information to obtain something of value) has reached the point where as many as one in five of us may end up as the victim of a thief’s attempt to use our personal information to commit some type of fraud.

A couple of years ago, a former bank employee opened accounts in the name of several well-known New Orleanians such as car dealer Ronnie LaMarque and music company executive J. Parham Werlein. Arrested and charged with the crime, the defendant-who ended up pleading guilty-admitted he had used the computers in our own Monroe Library to apply for loans and credit cards.

Various suggestions to protect yourself from identity theft include checking your credit card statements each month, regularly obtaining your credit report, and shredding all your financial records.

But the most important step you can take is simply to stop allowing anyone to use your Social Security number for any purpose other than that for which it is legally required-which is to keep track of your money for income tax purposes.

So while your employer and your bank may require you to provide the number, other government bodies may not, and it is important for you to remove the number from any government-issued records.

If you haven’t already, go to the Driver’s License Bureau and obtain a new license, one without your Social Security number on it-ditto for your Voter’s Registration card.

If your home is outside Louisiana and your state hasn’t yet changed its laws to allow for removal of the Social Security number from these documents, lobby to change the law.

Don’t put the Social Security number on any credit card application or have the number printed on your checks. Never post your number online or use your number as a password. Don’t carry the Social Security card in your wallet. Make sure no one else uses your Social Security number as an identifier-and that includes your university.

Soon after my arrival here, I started a campaign of pestering the administration until they finally surrendered and took my number off my faculty ID card.

My understanding is that while, of course, Loyola must require a Social Security number in order to issue a paycheck, no faculty or staff member is required to have the number printed on his ID card.

I took the quest one step further and demanded issuance of a faculty ID number to replace the Social Security number for all purposes other than payroll.

And good news for students: the administration finally woke up and smelled the café au lait. Starting this fall, Loyola will no longer use your Social Security number as your student ID number.

According to Director of Registration Services Kathy Gros, over the summer, Information Technology will begin the process of assigning every student a nine-digit ID number, which will be brought in eventually to replace your Social Security number for all purposes.

Of course, students receiving any type of financial aid will still be required to supply Social Security numbers to the university, but this number will be embedded in your records and unavailable to outsiders.

Congratulations to Loyola for taking a first step, even before such a change may be mandated (as it already is in New York.) It’s a small step, but it’s progress on the road to protection from the horrors of identity theft.

~ Sherry Alexander is a professor of communications.