Don't hesitate to hit "delete" if this is not of interest to you.  Below
is the text of a press release from the Travis County Clerk, responding
to the Texas Attorney General's efforts to prevent the disclosure of
social security numbers of living persons (SSNs are scattered throughout
those records).  Imagine being in a large county where several thousand
sales and purchases are made weekly..... and learning that you're now at
the end of a VERY long line, and must ask the Clerk's staff to research
each record needed so that you can obtain title insurance, and a loan
for property..... Watching this particular records issue develop will
certainly be worth watching!  We may be about to witness the real estate
industry come to a screeching halt in this state.....

 

 

 


DIRECT ACCESS TO PUBLIC RECORDS TEMPORARILY PROHIBITED


 

AUSTIN - In support of a recently released Attorney General's opinion,
Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir today announced that her office
would temporarily prohibit direct access to public records in the Travis
County Clerk's Office.  The AG's opinion (GA-0519) requires that the
County Clerk's office prevent the release of any document containing a
Social Security Number (SSN).  

 

Before any record can be released, County Clerk staff must individually
review each document to see if it contains an SSN.  If an SSN is found,
a copy of the record, with the SSN deleted, must be prepared before it
can be released to the public.  

 

While this opinion will have widespread consequences, Travis County is
better positioned to respond to the opinion's mandate than other Texas
counties. Following the last legislative session, when County Clerks
were first given permission to remove SSNs from documents, the Travis
County Clerk was the first to begin an aggressive redaction program
undertaken to protect the public from the dangers of identify theft.

 

This large-scale effort, which involves preparing a separate set of
records for public use that deletes personal identifiers (including
SSNs), eventually resulted in the removal of all non-redacted images
from the County's website. To date, the Clerk has redacted this
information from more than 11 million images.  

 

The opinion released late last week appears to definitively state that,
beginning immediately, the County Clerk must not reveal SSNs to anyone
either online or in the office. Due to the many questions this opinion
raises, we have decided to withhold direct public access to our redacted
and non-redacted records until further clarification of the opinion can
be obtained.  

 

An individual who wishes to view a document filed in the Clerk's Office
will be required to place a request at either our Airport Boulevard or
Courthouse location.  The Clerk's staff will research the request,
review the records, make a copy of any page that has an SSN, and then
make the redacted copy available to the customer. This is in stark
contrast to the streamlined process of giving customers the ability to
research documents on their own. At this time, we are unable to predict
how long it may take to fill any particular request.

 

We realize the timing of this action will create an enormous
inconvenience and disrupt business all across the State.  We apologize
for any problems this causes the public and ask for their patience as we
await further instruction from the Attorney General, the Legislature,
business institutions, and other organization such as the Texas
Association of Counties.

 

Douglas P. Allen, CRM, CDIA+


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