Can my employer or former employer give my W2 to someone else without my permission?
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Can my employer or former employer give my W2 to someone else without my permission?
A member of my ex-employer gave someone else my W2 without my permission and without knowledge to the managers. Can I take legal action? It has my SSN on it and other personal information.Tthe managers had no idea that my W2 wasn’t in their stack anymore. A fill-in manager at night handed it to a friend without my permission.
Asked on January 20, 2011 under Employment Labor Law, Georgia
Answers:
M.T.G., Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
The proper thing that your former employer should have done was to mail the W-2 to your last known address to properly protect your personal assets. I can see how yo could be upset here and I agree that it could have been a potentially bad situation - allowing someone else access to your social security number, etc. But if the W-2 arrived to you intact and without incident and you were not damaged in any way by identity theft or fraud or anything else, then I you have no damages here for which you can sue. If the person did not open your W-2 your privacy was not invaded in any way.
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