You are correct Steve. I think it is Collin Powell's social security number that is published in Virginia.

I tend to agree with you about BJ's posting the documents online but she is really doing nothing that differs from the sites where she found them.

The Tribune did not go directly to the county sites to gather the information on CIA agents. They went to a subscription site operated by data miners who mine the county information from both open and subscription sites.

You are correct in that companies and agencies should use discrection in dealing with this sensitive information but neither the data miners or county sites exercize any descretion with these documents. A subscription only helps the company or agency to insure THEY are paid to release to release information they consider their property.

Even in this, subscription sites fail miserably. Choicepoint, for example released a half million records from their subscription site to bogus accounts established by identity thieves working out of Nigeria. Subscription sites offer no more protection than a padlock on a paper box.

You are also corect in your evaluation that this information is available to anyone at the courthouse. It only becomes available to journalists in Chicago, terrorists in Syria, identity thieves in Nigeria and foreign outsource companies when it is placed online or sold in bulk digital form.