State officials published the social security numbers of 719 individuals who were owed a check or a refund from UF. They discovered the mistake this January, six years after the information was originally published.
The problem began in July 2005, when UF submitted its annual unclaimed property report to the Florida Department of Financial Services. The state disclosed information in the report, which contained individuals' social security numbers, on its Bureau of Unclaimed Property website.
Officials didn't discover the posting until Jan. 12 of this year and took the information off the website the same day, according to a UF press release. The university was notified Saturday. UF's Privacy Office wrote a letter dated from Monday to those affected.
UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes said UF met the federal deadline to notify those affected.
"It usually takes time for us to research whose names belong to what," Sikes said. "We have an investigation."
It is not known if the information was used by anyone, but it was web accessible. UF checked information for other submitted annual reports posted online and said no other restricted data was mistakenly disclosed.
