Snip from John:
> Here are the kinds of individuals that were identified by location in the
> release of Public Records:
>
> 1. Battered women hiding from husbands that felt they needed to protect
> themselves
Reporters will not take the time to sort this stuff out. For example, CONCERN is an organization that women seek out to avoid abusive spouses so they can pull their kids out of an abusive situation or other threats. If a reporter publishes a list with only his one agenda in mind, many people can be put in harms way.
That was my original point, we need to approach these issues with the thought of addressing all the issues not just embarrassing a rival political group.
When women run and hide and then are found because of exposure, their lives are in danger. It is not unreasonable to think that a woman who is in danger would have a firearm, and thus exposed in the unethical disclosure.
I live in a community of 4,000 so we see these things up close. If I am a person who volunteers to shelter these families and then find out that my address is published in the paper, the volunteering stops.
A recent Canadian article pointed out "Only in America would you need to present a driver's license to cash a check, or buy alcohol, or a gun but not to vote.” This is a simple issue but politicized. We no longer have an honest Press. They are partisan like fans of Notre Dame or Alabama. They pick a side and support their team. Being a reporter is not a noble profession anymore and there is far too little discussion about this degradation. It is this one-sidedness that prevents us have a meaningful dialog.
In records management, we do not keep records we like and shred the ones that do not fit our idea of how the organization should be run. This Listserve may be the last bastion of fairness in my mind as we can discuss both sides of issues and stay on point. In fact, the basic characteristic of records managers seem to be integrity.
I not only don’t want to publish whether I have gun(s) in my home, I don’t want them to publish whether I have a dog or dogs in my home. I certainly don’t want them to tell the crooks I have three of them. And I especially don’t want them to tell crooks that two of the dogs are big enough to guard the Chamber of Secrets in a Harry Potter film. With the high cost of food, vet and grooming bills I no longer have anything worth stealing, except maybe the dogs. Ha Ha, see if you can afford them?
Privacy is the first casualty of the computer age and seems to also be a victim of a polarized Press.
Remember when your Mom said “Look away, that is none of your business!” Facbook, Twitter and YouTube seem to have destroyed that sentiment. YouTube and Fail.com are filled with people being hurt, injured and embarrassed and we laugh. When did we become so mean spirited and lose our sense of fellow man. Is the Press’s desire to embarrass everyman for their own amusement a reflection of who we are?
The rules of records management apply here in this issue of Privacy. Records belong to someone and others do not have a right to them just because they exist. Records are managed and who can ethically view them is trust that should be honored. I sell vaults to protect records from those who have no legal interest in them and to protect them from destruction by those who might have abused the trust. HIPAA, PII and other laws affirm that right. For now the Records Manager, the Town Clerk, the County Clerk and others play the role of gatekeeper. Access should not be political but based on sound records management principles and the law.
Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
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(610) 756-4440 Fax (610) 756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM
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