Personal Data Being Exposed on Counties' Websites

[SlowMovin]

Kurt, I hope this is not in the wrong place. The article does not mention Walton County specifically but indicates that it is a statewide problem in Florida for all counties.

The Social Security numbers, driver's license information and bank account details belonging to potentially millions of current and former residents of Florida are available to anyone on the Internet because sensitive information has not been redacted from public records being posted on county Web sites...

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/privacy/story/0,10801,110389,00.html?source=NLT_PM&nid=110389

 

[Cork On the Ocean]

Kurt, I hope this is not in the wrong place. The article does not mention Walton County specifically but indicates that it is a statewide problem in Florida for all counties.

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/privacy/story/0,10801,110389,00.html?source=NLT_PM&nid=110389

Slow. your SS# is generally available at any driver's license office. Your tag info, marriage records, birth records, dog licensing, weapons permits, civil suits, judgements, traffic tickets, bankruptcy, mortgage, deeds, lis pendins and a world of other info is public record and easily obtainable through most county or statewide offices and has been for many years. The problem came when broward and other counties started making public records available online. Along with the document images comes your signature, receipt for recording which may include charge card or check info. Again, available for many years just not exposed to the world. In Walton county, they probably have to go through the trouble of going to the county office to get your info.

The internet has created lots of vulnerabilities for all of us. A good hacker could destroy you but so could somebody picking up the trash that you put out by your curb. A crime could be committed from your computer by someone across the world and you probably wouldn't even know it and tracing it back to them and gaining jurisdiction to prosecute them could be impossible.

The good thing is that your medical records are pretty safe thanks to legislation a few years back but the bottom line is a criminal has always had access to information about you . Now they don't have to leave their home. My question is will these documents be available though the google cache or the Wayback Machine after the records have been pulled off the server?

 

[Excalibur]

The whole thing stinks and nobody wants to actually do anything to change it. It seems everyone in Government just talks about the problem, but no one has had the follow through to do anything about it. ID Theft is all over the news, and yet even the IRS now is attempting to sell our personal tax return data to the highest bidder. C'mon give me a break, it all is just crazy.

 

[Cork On the Ocean]

The whole thing stinks and nobody wants to actually do anything to change it. It seems everyone in Government just talks about the problem, but no one has had the follow through to do anything about it. ID Theft is all over the news, and yet even the IRS now is attempting to sell our personal tax return data to the highest bidder. C'mon give me a break, it all is just crazy.

Jh, you have no idea about the corruption in ALL levels of government. We have a choice as a member of any organization - to make ourselves crazy trying to fight or expose them all or pick our fights with a select few. People on the inside that do want to do something are eliminated. This is inevitable. I have friends that sacrificed themselves at federal levels and some still in service that have decided to take care of themselves and their familes first and I empathize with them.

I am a sacrificial lamb for a branch of state government. When you whistleblow, you are driven out. In my particular case, "The Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (good friends of mine) picked up the torch, sacrificed themselves and finally the house was cleaned out, only to have more rats to come in, I'm sure. A book was actually written about my department called "Dangerous Doses" by a reporter named Katherine Eban. It's about to come out in paperback with the new "cleaned house" ending if you care to know about the prescription drugs that you and your family may be swallowing.

http://www.dangerousdoses.com/

I have no affiliation with the writer except that I was interviewed for the book. In fact I think this deserves it's own thread in the lounge.

 

[yippie]

One of the most ironic things that has happened in Florida is the State began to outsource many task involving State employees. They sent all their personal information, including SS#'s, etc, to India.

It is now available all over the world!

 

[Smiling JOe]

The above is a good reason to run a free credit report on yourself every four months to check for out of whack info that could be caused by otherwise unkonwn ID theft. Each of the big 3 credit bureaus give one free credit report per year, so rotate them checking your credit report 3 x per year. ;-)

 

[Bob]

The above is a good reason to run a free credit report on yourself every four months to check for out of whack info that could be caused by otherwise unkonwn ID theft. Each of the big 3 credit bureaus give one free credit report per year, so rotate them checking your credit report 3 x per year. ;-)

here's a website to pull your credit reporthttps://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

 

[ShallowsNole]

Just so you know...if your SSN is on a document that can be found online in Walton County's official records, you can have it redacted. There is a form for the person requesting the redaction to fill out, and the person needs to provide the book and page numbers in the official records where the document was recorded. There are also certain court documents that are recorded in the official records but the images are not available online for privacy reasons. I only know Walton County's procedure, but I am sure that other counties have similar procedures. Keeping public records public while keeping private info private is always a topic of interest with the Florida Association of Court Clerks.

Beyond that, personal information floating around is one of the drawbacks of the convenience of being able to conduct business over the telephone or internet without coming into a business office...not just in government, but also in the retail world. Like SJ suggested, keeping an eye on your credit report is much more urgent these days than it used to be.