A roommate and I are applying to apartments and rental houses in Baltimore, Maryland.
One landlord gave us a form for us to fill out references for our employment and past rentals.
We felt the form was pretty invasive because it collected a lot of personal information not directly related to evaluating us as tenants. In particular, it asked for: our SSNs, our drivers license IDs, our current address, it requested to inspect our current residence, etc.
Despite our better judgement, we filled it out anyway.
In following up on our employment references, he forwarded the entire reference form to my employer. This is deeply disturbing to us. Especially because my employer obviously doesn't have my roommate's SSN.
Is this a violation of our rights? If so, which laws did he violate?