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<DIV><SPAN class=848193003-25022007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>This
bothers me as well. I work with courthouse documents every day. However, neither
the Sunshine Laws nor FOIA promised remote access via the Internet to records
that belong to the citizens. These laws were intended to make the records
available to citizens who visited the repositories. They were never intended to
be available to an identity thief sitting in an Internet cafe in Nigeria or a
terrorist from his home computer in Iran. </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=848193003-25022007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=848193003-25022007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>You
have to also consider what information would need to be redacted, SSN's of
course but their is much more sensitive information contained in the documents
than just the SSN's. When you consider that anything you use to identity
yourself can and has been used by identity thieves to identity themselves as
their victims then it is clear. In many cases, identity thieves don't need a
Social. It is handy but only because it can be used to gather more information
on the victim. Criminals can easily use a signature copied from a County Website
to steal a home. I know of one victim who had his home stolen twice. The FBI has
called deed and mortgage fraud the fastest growing white collar crime in
America. </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=848193003-25022007></SPAN><SPAN
class=848193003-25022007></SPAN><SPAN class=848193003-25022007><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN><SPAN class=848193003-25022007><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=848193003-25022007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Keeping the records within the four walls of the courthouse is a system
that has worked for centuries. Of course, this system left little oportunity for
identity thieves or data agregators to profit at taxpayer
expense.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=848193003-25022007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=848193003-25022007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>The
safest solution has always been the simplest. The images should never be
connected to a computer that is in turn connected to any network that reaches
outside the jurisdiction of the repository. Most County Clerks in Texas have
come to this realization although some needed the added inducement of an AG
opinion. The indexes, which truly are government documents, are still
available on the county website but the people's papers (deeds,
mortgages, leases etc.) are kept at the local repository.
</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=848193003-25022007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=848193003-25022007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>David
Bloys</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=848193003-25022007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>News
For Public Officials</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=848193003-25022007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><A
href="http://www.newsforpublicofficials.com">www.newsforpublicofficials.com</A>
</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
/><o:p> </o:p></DIV>
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<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left><FONT
face=Tahoma size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Nash, Kim
[mailto:Kim_Nash@ziffdavis.com] <BR><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, February 24, 2007
9:12 PM<BR><B>To:</B> David Bloys; Richard Forno<BR><B>Cc:</B>
dataloss@attrition.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> RE: [Dataloss] Think Your Social
Security Number Is Secure? ThinkAgain<BR><BR></FONT></DIV><!-- Converted from text/plain format --><BR><BR>
<P><FONT size=2>> I can tell you also that most County websites across
Texas have blocked<BR>> access to the document images on their
sites.<BR><BR>What bothers me and other Sunshine Law and FOIA advocates (and
users) is that these documents are being blocked or removed, instead of simply
redacted of personal information.<BR><BR>-- Kim</FONT> </P><BR>
<P><FONT size=2>--<BR>Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.<BR>Checked by
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Date: 02/17/2007 5:06 PM<BR></FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>
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