Online record access debated

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, February 24, 2007

Snohomish County’s plan to restrict access to some online public records has drawn fire and praise.

County Auditor Carolyn Diepenbrock announced this week that she plans to block online access to 61 kinds of public documents because some people fear they could help identity thieves, she said.

The documents – including marriage certificates and tax liens – might have Social Security numbers and the maiden names of people’s mothers, Diepenbrock said.

Diepenbrock made the wrong decision, said Charles Fay, 70, of Marysville.

“I hope she will change her mind,” he said. “It ought to be the duty of the custodians of those records to make them available. They belong to us.”

He said he looks for family with county records, but, at his age, he can’t traipse to the courthouse every time he wants a public record.

“In this computer age it should be your priority to make all of these records available online,” Fay wrote Diepenbrock. “I too am concerned about identity theft, but your proposed action will do little or nothing to address the problem, and it will greatly inconvenience those who legitimately seek access to their public records.”

The restrictions affect about 10 percent of the county online documents, possibly hundreds of thousands of pages. An online index will remain, but links to the actual document images will be severed.

Starting March 1, the documents will be available only at the county courthouse.

A few dozen people complained to the county about the documents in the past year, Diepenbrock said.

“Even though there were not 100 people pounding on the counters, it is a clearly an issue that is very, very sensitive out there,” she said.

“Ask people on the street, ‘How do you feel about having Social Security numbers on the auditor’s Web page?’ They’re the ones I’m responding to.”

Some praised Diepenbrock.

Bill Blackie of Lynnwood has pressed for two years to remove his personal information from a document on the county’s Web site.

“I’m very excited that they’re going to change that,” Blackie said. “That’s totally cool.”

The county is moving in the wrong direction, said Michele Earl-Hubbard, a media law attorney and past president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government.

“You hope they make things accessible to the public faster and cheaper,” she said. “Just shutting down access doesn’t make a lot of sense. That restricts people based on geography. People from other states have rights to information. They shouldn’t have to physically go somewhere to get a public document.”

Access to documents with Social Security numbers is seen as a concern, but there’s no evidence of identity theft, she said.

“If information shouldn’t be in a public document, don’t put it in a public document,” she said. “Don’t restrict access to everything.”

A local genealogy group that relies on marriage and other records isn’t worried.

“Nobody’s too concerned about it,” said Carol Ripley, treasurer of the Sno-Isle Genealogical Society. “Just go to the courthouse and you can see it at the courthouse.”

The county’s public records index remains online, which is key, Ripley said.

Marge Reid, another member of the group, said: “The people who are going to be upset with this are going to be the people who believe they have the right to find everything about their family history online instantly and for free.

“For the rest of us who started genealogy projects before instant gratification, it’s OK.”

The world is changing, and with it views of privacy and public records, said Jerry Handfield, state archivist and president of the Coalition for Open Government.

“I think we’re gradually making many more millions of records available to the public, which is a big improvement over going to every courthouse,” he said. “We’re going through a time period where the public is adjusting to having a lot of public information online.”

No one is aware of a case of identity theft from public records, he said. Still, the fear persists.

“It demonstrates that we have lots of educating to do to reassure the public that by putting these records online, it won’t hurt them personally,” he said.

Though the move might temporarily restrict public access, the debate also teaches people the pros and cons of access to public records.

“It encourages us to be concerned about Social Security numbers and keys to people’s identity,” Handfield said. “We can manage those things to be more efficient.”

Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.