A bill currently under consideration by the state legislature would remove Social Security numbers and birthdates from state probate records, and it is a bill that Covington County Probate Judge Ben Bowden favors.
Bowden: "I am in favor of anything that would protect the identity of our citizens. I’m for this bill and want to work with my fellow probate judges across the state to develop some means to protect this kind of information."
Information like Social Security numbers and birthdates is listed on public records held at the state’s county probate offices. However, as more of that information is being transferred to the Internet, questions have arisen about the safety of including such information in a place where anyone could easily access it.
Bowden said the bill would remove SSNs and similar information from probate records in the future, both hard copy and online archives. He added that there are ways to mask the information in the existing digital archives, but doing the same for the bound printed public record may prove to be difficult.
The bill is enumerated as S.B. 11 and is sponsored by Sen. Kim Benefield.
Full Article and Source:
Bill could remove SSNs from records
See also:
Probate and Identity Theft
Bowden: "I am in favor of anything that would protect the identity of our citizens. I’m for this bill and want to work with my fellow probate judges across the state to develop some means to protect this kind of information."
Information like Social Security numbers and birthdates is listed on public records held at the state’s county probate offices. However, as more of that information is being transferred to the Internet, questions have arisen about the safety of including such information in a place where anyone could easily access it.
Bowden said the bill would remove SSNs and similar information from probate records in the future, both hard copy and online archives. He added that there are ways to mask the information in the existing digital archives, but doing the same for the bound printed public record may prove to be difficult.
The bill is enumerated as S.B. 11 and is sponsored by Sen. Kim Benefield.
Full Article and Source:
Bill could remove SSNs from records
See also:
Probate and Identity Theft
I think it's a good idea to keep information out of the record that could be used for the wrong reasons, especially sensitive information available via the Internet.
ReplyDeleteNo one needs to see the SS numbers or the dob of a person, which is the precise information needed for those with criminal minds to steal identity.
I agree, SS numbers aren't essential to the record.
ReplyDeleteNeither are bank account numbers.
Wait, in the case of a bad guardianship, if the bank account numbers were public information, the family might get a better idea of what is going on.
The best answer would be no sensitive info in the records, but the famly must be served in compliance with law.
I would be hesitant to agree to removing DOB and SS from the public domain, but accessible to attorneys. I believe the threat of corporate control is greater than that of identity thieves. For example,the HIPAA Act was sold to us in the name of patient privacy, but in fact under HIPAA patient records can now be accessed by nearly everyone in the corporate health care community but the patient. SS numbers and birth dates are currently used to identify us everywhere else. Birth and death dates have tracked ancestry and cemetery records for decades. We must be careful not to tread on our own freedom, when the internet is the last place we have as protected freedom of speech.
ReplyDelete