Macy's Parade Confetti Contained Confidential Information, Investigation Underway
An investigation is underway in New York after reports arose stating that some of the confetti used during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade contained confidential and sensitive information.
The issue of the confetti first became public after Ethan Finkelstein reported the confetti falling around him as he watched the parade contained Social Security numbers, employee identification numbers, bank account numbers, as well as pieces of police reports, according to WPIX.
"There were thousands of pieces of white confetti paper all around us. We just picked up a handful and started going through it and we noticed there were more Social Security numbers, more address and phone numbers," Finkelstein said.
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Finkelstein, 18, said he was at 65th Street and Central Park West watching the parade when the rain of confetti began to fall with some landing on a friends shoulder.
"It landed on her shoulder … and it says 'SSN' and it's written like a Social Security number, and we're like, 'That's really bizarre. There are phone numbers, addresses, more Social Security numbers, license plate numbers and then we find all these incident reports from police."
A spokesperson for the Macy's said the official parade confetti is commercially manufactured, multicolor confetti and that they never use shredded white paper.
Nassau County Police officers are currently looking in the claims and maintained that it takes the handling of sensitive and confidential information very seriously.
"The Nassau County Police Department is very concerned about this situation. We will be conducting an investigation into this matter as well as reviewing our procedures for the disposing of sensitive documents," Inspector Kenneth Lack, commanding officer for public information with the Nassau County Police Department, told WPIX.
This is not the first time reports of personal information had been found on confetti. During the parade after the New York Giants won the Super Bowl earlier this year, some of the confetti dropped from office buildings was found to contain sensitive and personal information.
