Too bad, so sad

February 27, 2007

MySA.com: Metro | Privacy idea becoming a ‘nightmare’ for counties

Last week, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an opinion that government officials must remove Social Security numbers before distributing public documents.

…
“It’s a nightmare,” Atascosa County Clerk Laquita Hayden said.

“This all kind of hit us like a brick wall,” Hayden said. “The title people and the petroleum landmen are up in arms about it. It puts us in an awkward position. If we don’t supply a public record, we have a problem. If we do supply a public record that has a Social Security number on it, we have a problem.”

You know I read several versions of this same story in all the Texas daily papers quoting several different people like Laquita Hayden saying how horrible this ruling is to them. All I keep thinking is too bad. It shouldn’t take a ruling by Greg Abbott to tell anyone that making someone’s social security number public record is a bad idea. Laquita Hayden and the rest of the complainers have every right to publish their social security numbers if they so choose but they don’t get to publish mine or yours. This is just common sense and you can’t tell me that no one thought of it until now. I am sorry it will hurt smaller counties but give me a break. This is something they should have taken care of as the paperwork was coming in to them, before they made it public record.

Technorati Tags: Greg Abbott, Social Security numbers, public record, privacy

Category Posted in Greg Abbott, privacy

One Response to “Too bad, so sad”

Rowdy Theologian said:

February 28th, 2007 at 11:35 am

First: Nobody is going to place your social security number in the public records unless you yourself disregard the Notice of Confidentiality Rights that Texas law requires at the top of deeds, which reads “IF YOU ARE A NATURAL PERSON, YOU MAY REMOVE OR STRIKE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION FROM THIS INSTRUMENT BEFORE IT IS FILED FOR RECORD IN THE PUBLIC RECORDS: YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER OR YOUR DRIVER’S LICENSE NUMBER.

If an instrument does not contain this disclaimer, the County Clerk can refuse to file the document.

Second: Social Security Numbers appear on records dating back to 1935. Redacting the documents could take months. You can’t simply freeze real estate transactions from taking place for that length of time. That’s moronic, you’d trigger an instant recession! Luckily, folks in Austin have come to their senses. Abbott reportedly is issuing a 60 day abatement of his order today, so clerks can reopen their doors. That will give the State congress time to legislate a realistic solution.