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.

In one recent case, Ostergren did just that. She had warned a citizen in one city about his online Social security number. The citizen, who asked that his name not be used, was so shocked, he contacted his officials asking that the system be shut down. When they flatly refused, Ostergren published one senator's Social Security number.

"I put that out there to teach him a lesson, and because he has the power to go to the IRS and get a new Social Security number," Ostergren said, "but consider the ruined lives of abused women, single women, the elderly and children who aren't as privileged."

So far Ostergren has warned thousands of citizens through letters and phone calls that she's found their personal records online. Within 24 hours, states like Vermont, California, Arizona, Colorado and Missouri have shut their online records down.

"I've literally spent over 4½ years warning that this is going on," she said, "but to this day, most people have no clue that their governments are putting them at risk."

One positive outcome occurred after Ostergren found Donald Trump's Social Security number online. She got the newspapers involved and New York online public records system was shut down. Yet, private information can still be found on New York's county and city sites.

Ostergren feels no one will be truly safe until all 50 states ban local court clerks and recorders from posting personal data online. She says citizens should contact their legislators to get records back within the four walls of courthouses. Until then, Ostergren says, people are exposed.