LilMtnCbn
06-14-2004, 07:28 AM
http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/news/stories/20040614/localnews/63987
4.html
Internet allows quick access to public records
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Twenty years ago, Betsie Norris' search to find her birth parents in Wisconsin
through paper records took eight months.
She likely could do it in a day or so using public records and other documents
now available on the Internet.
"The Internet certainly has made that easier," said Norris, executive director
of Adoption Network Cleveland. "It helps to speed things up."
Adoptees looking for their birth parents, or anyone else trying to search
public documents, can turn on their computers to sift through items such as
marriage records, the Social Security Death Index, military records,
professional licenses and property records.
That easy access to such records has encouraged more adoptees to search for
their birth parents, Norris said.
Now that many public records are available on the Internet, more people are
tapping their way to them, including those who before might not have bothered.
That could be a homebuyer visiting a county tax appraiser's Web site to assess
sale prices. A single woman making sure a romantic prospect isn't a parole
violator. Or a mother looking for a licensed day care facility.
The number of government entities putting public records online is on the rise,
said Charles Davis, director of the Freedom of Information Center at the
University of Missouri.
But the availability of documents online differs from state to state. State
agencies are not required by law to have Web sites, resulting in an uneven
patchwork of online government records across the United States.
North Carolina, which recently changed its laws to deal with privacy issues, is
generally regarded as the most online-access friendly, Davis said.
There, "most everything you can get on paper you can get electronically," Davis
said.
Many of the Western states with smaller populations and leaner governments have
less of a Web presence, Davis said.
The ease of access to some records has raised privacy, security and political
concerns. Some government officials have removed documents from the Internet or
stripped out identifying information from online records.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction removed the names, photos
and records of former prison inmates -- an estimated 300,000 people dating to
the late 1970s -- from its Web site in March. Officials said they were
responding to years of complaints from former inmates who argued the site hurt
their efforts to get jobs and rebuild their lives.
Last fall, Florida, Virginia and California also removed or restricted
significant amounts of court and administrative agency documents from their
state Web sites, according to Medford, N.J.-based Information Today magazine.
John Soma, a law professor and executive director of the Privacy Center at the
University of Denver, said debates about privacy will grow as more records
become available online.
"That's why we have to have a meaningful discussion about where you draw the
line," he said. "We need to balance the right of the public for access (to
records) and somebody's attempt to rebuild, to have a new start."
Still, online access to government records could be a freeing, profound tool
for citizens, Davis said. And he believes the Web's potential as a government
information source has yet to be fully realized.
"It could be the most incredibly democratizing thing," Davis said. "But there's
a lot of technological fear and obstinance."
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
4.html
Internet allows quick access to public records
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Twenty years ago, Betsie Norris' search to find her birth parents in Wisconsin
through paper records took eight months.
She likely could do it in a day or so using public records and other documents
now available on the Internet.
"The Internet certainly has made that easier," said Norris, executive director
of Adoption Network Cleveland. "It helps to speed things up."
Adoptees looking for their birth parents, or anyone else trying to search
public documents, can turn on their computers to sift through items such as
marriage records, the Social Security Death Index, military records,
professional licenses and property records.
That easy access to such records has encouraged more adoptees to search for
their birth parents, Norris said.
Now that many public records are available on the Internet, more people are
tapping their way to them, including those who before might not have bothered.
That could be a homebuyer visiting a county tax appraiser's Web site to assess
sale prices. A single woman making sure a romantic prospect isn't a parole
violator. Or a mother looking for a licensed day care facility.
The number of government entities putting public records online is on the rise,
said Charles Davis, director of the Freedom of Information Center at the
University of Missouri.
But the availability of documents online differs from state to state. State
agencies are not required by law to have Web sites, resulting in an uneven
patchwork of online government records across the United States.
North Carolina, which recently changed its laws to deal with privacy issues, is
generally regarded as the most online-access friendly, Davis said.
There, "most everything you can get on paper you can get electronically," Davis
said.
Many of the Western states with smaller populations and leaner governments have
less of a Web presence, Davis said.
The ease of access to some records has raised privacy, security and political
concerns. Some government officials have removed documents from the Internet or
stripped out identifying information from online records.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction removed the names, photos
and records of former prison inmates -- an estimated 300,000 people dating to
the late 1970s -- from its Web site in March. Officials said they were
responding to years of complaints from former inmates who argued the site hurt
their efforts to get jobs and rebuild their lives.
Last fall, Florida, Virginia and California also removed or restricted
significant amounts of court and administrative agency documents from their
state Web sites, according to Medford, N.J.-based Information Today magazine.
John Soma, a law professor and executive director of the Privacy Center at the
University of Denver, said debates about privacy will grow as more records
become available online.
"That's why we have to have a meaningful discussion about where you draw the
line," he said. "We need to balance the right of the public for access (to
records) and somebody's attempt to rebuild, to have a new start."
Still, online access to government records could be a freeing, profound tool
for citizens, Davis said. And he believes the Web's potential as a government
information source has yet to be fully realized.
"It could be the most incredibly democratizing thing," Davis said. "But there's
a lot of technological fear and obstinance."
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
