The Social Security numbers of thousands of people who received loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have been exposed for a number of years in a publicly available database. The issue was first discovered April 13 by a user of OMB Watchs FedSpending.org, an online service about federal spending. The group created the site last year to provide public access to government contracts and grants in a searchable database. Users can search the information by company or by individual names to see who receives federal money. The USDA said it removed information from the FAADS database immediately after it learned of the potential exposure.”]