Dan,
 
Excellent "rant"..... As for those who purchase copies of the records, many are the same title insurance folks who need the records in order to clear purchasers for refinancing, or for the purchase of a new home, etc.  Others are those who grant credit for other purposes - consumer loans, etc., and sadly there are some profiteers who gather that information for less than "admirable purposes" (so they can resell the information to those who want to pay a fee to find out all about someone else).  Public Records statutes, though draw no distinction regarding the "motivations" of those who ask for the records. In most states, those who receive requests are not even permitted to ask why the information is being requested.
 
Doug Allen, CRM, CDIA+

________________________________

From: Records Management Program on behalf of Daniel W. Noonan, MLS, CDIA+
Sent: Tue 2/27/2007 8:13 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [RM] Text of Press Release - Limiting Public Access to Property Record Documents



The irony is that SSNs were never supposed to be
in land record documents as they have no
requirement  for them.  What happened was hapless
bank officials, attorneys, or their staff mistook
"SS" - meaning signature - for social
security.  Nobody complained until clerks and
registers of deeds started scanning them to make
them more efficiently available.  In my former
role with the State of New Jersey, I worked
closely with the 21 Clerks and Registers of Deeds
on the implementation and certification of their
document imaging systems and electronic filing
portals.  They are the ones caught between a rock-and-a-hard place:
    * everybody wants the electronic access to
all their records and they want it NOW
    * they did not erroneously fill out the documents
    * they have to pay for the redaction which
either means higher fees (statutorily set) or
higher taxes or staff/services reduction
And on top of it all, you end up with private
industry requesting all the records via open
public records requests (pay a pittance for it)
so they can re-purpose it and sell it.

That's my 2¢ rant

Thanks -- Dan




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