{"id":326,"date":"2006-06-28T11:14:00","date_gmt":"2006-06-28T17:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/06\/county-ends-online-access-to-many-public-records\/"},"modified":"2006-06-28T11:14:00","modified_gmt":"2006-06-28T17:14:00","slug":"county-ends-online-access-to-many-public-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/06\/county-ends-online-access-to-many-public-records\/","title":{"rendered":"County ends online access to many public records"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> plans to stop making available on its Web site many public records because of concerns that some contain social security numbers. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This is a step backward for a county that was way ahead of others in offering the public such access to public records.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Concerns were first raised at Tuesday\u2019s commission meeting by Commissioner Bill McCamley. He was recently contacted by a constituent who found his own social security number on a home-mortgage document on the county\u2019s Web site. McCamley said he was concerned about identity theft and thought the county should consider taking down the site.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

County Manager Brian Haines, County Clerk Rita Torres and Assessor Gary Perez decided Wednesday morning to do that.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is the prudent thing to do. The privacy and safety of our citizens has to come as our top priority,\u201d McCamley told me Wednesday. \u201cThat being said, we\u2019re going to do everything we possibly can to come up with a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The change will cause a huge headache for title and mortgage companies, who rely on the site. They threw a fit in 2002 when the site went down for several months.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The county apparently plans to give some sort of special Web access to title and mortgage companies in the future. It\u2019s the public that will have to visit the clerks\u2019 office and thumb through paper records.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve used this site extensively, and it\u2019s rare to come across a social security number on any document. Such information is no longer collected, and exists only on public records that are several years old.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

And those same documents, with the same social security numbers, will still exist in the clerk\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I doubt putting those social security numbers online has resulted in identity theft. Those who are after specific social security numbers most often subscribe to private services that give them access to state Motor Vehicle Division records. Those who are after a slew of numbers steal them from credit card databases and other locations.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Most commonly, online identity theft involves credit and debit card numbers, not social security numbers.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Some commissioners said Tuesday they want the state to change the law that prevents them from altering public records, so they can redact social security numbers from these records and feel comfortable with them being available online. It\u2019s an idea that should be discussed. McCamley also suggested to me the possibility of putting back online only records that don\u2019t contain social security numbers, once the documents are sorted out.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But taking the service offline in the meantime, when there hasn\u2019t been a known problem with identity theft using the county<\/st1:placetype> Web site<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>, is a bad idea.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The reality is that public records are public. Technology is shifting to the Internet. In the future, all public records will be available online, regardless of whether they contain information some don\u2019t like them containing.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

How, then, will we be protected from identity theft? There are already lots of systems in place to do that. There are also ways people can protect themselves. They should be checking their bank accounts online daily. They should check their credit reports periodically.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Dumpster diving is another way people\u2019s identities are stolen, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s important that records be destroyed before being thrown away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do\u00f1a Ana County plans to stop making available on its Web site many public records because of concerns that some contain social security numbers. This is a step backward for a county that was way ahead of others in offering the public such access to public records. Concerns were first raised at Tuesday\u2019s commission meeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}