PORTLAND — The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office says it has corrected a software mistake that exposed the social security numbers of about 180 people, who had been arrested between Aug. 27 and Sept. 4, on the county’s Facebook page.

Sheriff Kevin J. Joyce said the error was discovered within 45 minutes after a software update had been implemented on Sept. 4.

The error gave about 70 people access to the social security numbers of both longer term inmates and those individuals who were arrested, brought to the jail, and released on the same day, Joyce said.

The software update was made to give the Sheriff’s Office the ability to send a weekly arrest report to various media outlets as well as to post arrests to the county’s Facebook page. Ten media outlets and about 60 Facebook followers had access to the information during the 45 minute time frame the numbers were posted.

The software update has been customized and will not include social security numbers in the future.

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