Privacy Advocate Pushes to Protect Data in Public Records

April 09, 2007 (Computerworld) For nearly five years, Betty “BJ” Ostergren — a feisty 57-year-old former insurance claims supervisor — has led a one-person crusade to persuade county and state government officials to stop posting public records containing Social Security numbers and other personal data on their Web sites.

Last month, Ostergren persuaded the secretaries of state in Colorado and Arizona to break links to some commercial and tax lien documents. And last week, she began putting public pressure on Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin to do the same thing.

Ostergren, who lives in Virginia, spoke with Computerworld about her privacy campaign last week.

Excerpts follow:
Are there many counties around the U.S. that are still posting public records with personal data?
Yes, there are. It’s stupid, it’s reckless, and it’s dangerous. Here’s a thought: If somebody wants to see a public record, why don’t they get in their car and drive down to the courthouse or the secretary of state’s office? Don’t be spoon-feeding criminals with stuff on the Internet. County clerks say all they’re doing is making the same records that are available in the courthouse available online.

What’s wrong with that?
Sure, these are open records at the courthouse, as well they should be. But when we first started putting our records in these courthouses hundreds of years ago, it was for safekeeping and for different legal purposes. With the advent of the Internet, everybody wants to put all this crap online, and I just think that it’s dead wrong.

So who do you think is accessing the data?
Absolutely anybody and everybody can access it. People from outside this country are into these sites, and so are people from within this country. Maybe it’s your neighbor down the street. A site like the Colorado secretary of state’s is free and open. Anybody can just simply sign up and get a password, and in a minute you can get right in.

But some states and counties require you to pay for the records, right?
A subscription is no protection. In Virginia, for $25 you can sign up to access [the Web site of] Fairfax County. I send in $25 and I get a password and a username back in three days or so, and then I’m in there sitting on 33 million records and about 5 million Social Security numbers. That’s where you lose control of those records. There are people downloading them by the gazillions.