Section 8 Unauthorized disclosure of information; fine; administrative discipline - Massachusetts Statutes

Section 8. No employee or agent of the commonwealth shall divulge any information referred to in this chapter, except in the manner herein prescribed to any public or private agency or individual; provided, however, that information may be disclosed and shared by and between any employee of an administering agency and any subgrantee, local administering agency, or any local housing authority for the purpose of verifying eligibility and detecting and preventing fraud, error and abuse in the programs included in the reporting system; and provided further, that subject to the safeguards established pursuant to section 5A of chapter 119A, the IV-D agency may disclose information to any agent of the IV-D agency that is under contract with the IV-D agency for purposes of administering the child support enforcement program of the commonwealth, only to the extent necessary for performance of such agent’s contracted duties. Such information may also be disclosed to the state police, including the state police violent fugitive arrest squad, and local police departments, for the sole purpose of identifying and locating individuals wanted on default or arrest warrants. Only identifying and locating information, including, but not limited to, the name, date of birth, all pertinent addresses, telephone number and social security number of such individuals shall be made available to the state police and local police departments pursuant to this section. Unauthorized disclosure of any such information shall be a violation punishable by a fine of one hundred dollars per offense; provided that the unauthorized release of such information about any individual shall be a separate offense from information released about any other individual. Such unauthorized release of information shall also be cause for administrative discipline of any employee who engages in such unauthorized release.