Do State Governments Protect Your Privacy? Don't Count on It

May 3, 2007 — -- While federal Homeland Security is meticulously warning American citizens about the potential for identity theft, not to mention terrorism, many state governments are making private records, such as Social Security numbers, mother's maiden names, signatures and addresses available online for anyone to see.

"I found John McCain's parking space number in Arlington County, Va., and Colin Powell's Social Security number in Fairfax County, Va., as well as Tom DeLay's in Fort Bend County, Texas," said B.J. Ostergren, a Virginia activist who is fighting to get state governments to remove personal records from the Internet.

Aside from tens of millions of cases of identity theft in America, Ostergren, who runs The Virginia Watchdog, a Web site dedicated to exposing state privacy issues, also worries that the lives of judges, officials and law enforcement may also be at risk while the nation is at war.

Ostergren wants states to halt the practice of Internet access to the records, but at times, her cry has fallen on deaf ears.

"States are spoon-feeding criminals," Ostergren said.

In decades past, private information on matters like a divorce decree, liens or mortgages were held in a courthouse as public records for people to access. Those documents could include credit card numbers, Social Security numbers and other personal information.

Today, many people are unaware that most courthouses have converted to online records that can be accessed from anywhere. More than not, the personal data have not been redacted, or blacked out.

Cincinnati lawyer Christine Jenkins has reviewed hundreds of online public record identity theft cases across the country. Currently, she is handling a class action suit against her county.

"There are public officials who have published this data inadvertently. But some other officials are repugnant because they defend the right to publish your name, your date of birth, your driver's license number, address and physical description, Social Security number and signature. I think they need to be taught a lesson," Jenkins said.