The Virginia General Assembly passed a law in 2007 requiring that certain public records be posted online, even those containing your Social Security number, date of birth, signature, or other sensitive information. Yes, in the age where identity theft is rampant and destroying credit records and lives, a majority of our elected officials decided to make it much easier for your identity to be stolen.
Then, in 2008, the General Assembly passed a law to muzzle the woman who has tried to stop the government from posting this information on the Internet. When most legislators wouldn’t listen to her warnings about the dangers of this insanity, Betty “B.J.” Ostergren decided to post THEIR Social Security numbers and other information on her Web site, TheVirginiaWatchdog.com. They didn’t like that, so they made it illegal for her (and any private citizen) to disseminate this information on the Internet, even though the government disseminates it on its own Web sites. Huh??
Last week, with the assistance of the Virginia ACLU, she won her case against the state, and the muzzle is back off.
A little background: Court records such as deeds, mortgages, tax liens, powers of attorney, wills, and divorce decrees have always been available as a matter of public record, but seeing them required going to the courthouse in person and looking them up. Since the General Assembly mandated all court clerks put certain records online, it created a goldmine for scammers and identity thieves to easily pull Social Security numbers and copies of signatures off the Internet by the thousands. These records can also contain dates of birth, mothers’ maiden names, minor children’s names, and financial account numbers.
To demonstrate how easy the government made it for criminals, Ostergren has personally downloaded 22,000 Social Security numbers off the Internet from home, and has access to millions more.
Although the General Assembly passed a law requiring the sensitive information be blacked out on documents, it didn’t take effect because the legislators didn’t take it seriously enough to appropriate the needed money to pay for the time and labor for court clerks to do it. Instead, legislators went after the messenger and passed a ridiculous and unconstitutional law to stop Ostergren from posting their personal information online by making it illegal for anyone to disseminate Social Security numbers from public records (but its okay for the government to do it). The law didn’t do much to stop the criminals (they don’t care about violating the law), but it certainly stopped our free speech rights.
Ostergren challenged the law on First Amendment grounds and a U.S. district court judge struck it down last week.
That means she can continue to post legislators’ personal information on her Web site without interference (did I mention the address is TheVirginiaWatchdog.com?) She told me this week she plans to keep doing it until the General Assembly finally relents and passes a law – and the accompanying funding – for court clerks to redact sensitive information. Until then, Virginians will remain at great risk for identity theft.
Our legislators have been putting off doing the right thing for too long – and for no good reason. Make sure your Delegate and Senator are sponsoring legislation to take care of this problem when the General Assembly reconvenes in January. If they aren’t, make sure they know they won’t ever get your vote again.
