I do see a slight difference here.  The information, though it is public record, has in the past only been available by sending someone to the county to obtain it.  There was a cost associated with doing so and those who provide the service would at least have a record of who requested and paid for it.

With on-line access, anyone can obtain personal information anonymously from any computer in the world.  It certainly makes the abuse of the information more likely.  I was able to find dozens of names, addresses, and social security numbers on our local county web site.  I think those people would be shocked and offended that the information was so freely available.  The government is charged with maintaining the public records and I think the public would certianly feel violated if they were aware of what was going on.

You are correct in your "corn" analogy, but the problem is there is no effective regulation in place to prevent this type of abuse.  Once the public can be assured that their public records are more secure - perhaps on-line searching will be a better proposition. 

I agree that it is public record, but it wasn't so frightening when it wasn't on-line.  You bring up some good points and this is a good discussion to have.  We probably won't solve the problem and its not likely we will all agree on the issue, but we all need to be aware of the pros and cons.

Robert A. Franco
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