Robert Siciliano is a NextAdvisor.com Guest Expert Blogger
BJ Ostergren is proud Virginian. It is known as "The Virginia Watchdog," but I like to call "The Pit Bull of privacy." She is relentless in its efforts to protect the privacy of citizens, and is primarily concerned with posting personal information online. So, to make this point, it is personal information about their own statements of politicians websites, and republishes the information online.
government employees appointed publicly known as court clerks, county clerks or registration are responsible for the handling and management of public records, including birth, death, marriage, the court , property and business deposits for municipalities. Each state, city and town has its own set of rules that determine how data is collected and made available to the public.
The 1974 Protection Act is a federal law that establishes a code of fair practices governing the collection, maintenance, use and dissemination of personal information about individuals who are kept in record systems by federal agencies.
Over the years, many have interpreted the law to allow public information, including Social Security numbers, to be published online. I saw the Social Security numbers for Jeb Bush, Colin Powell, former CIA Director Porter Goss, Troy Aiken, and Donald Trump, all published on the Internet.
Thereyears, BJ discovered that several States, including his home state of Virginia to have displayed our online records, and she immediately saw how it could contribute to identity theft . She downloaded up to 22,000 Social Security numbers of titles, mortgages, tax liens from the circuit court sites, acts and secretaries of state records. She made a concerted effort to inform each agency that they did was unethical, at least, and perhaps even criminal. But it has often been reprimanded. That's when she decided to fight. When government agencies have stopped listening, she began to post personal information of politicians on its own website, "The Virginia Watchdog." This has certainly caught the attention of officials, but it also created a reaction against it.
Some states have solved the problem by redact Social Security numbers, but Virginia did not. BJ persisted to inform of the problem and, as Richmond Times Dispatch said, "the state decided that the person who brought the problem to their attention was the problem."
Virgina A 2008 state law prohibits the dissemination of information from public documents and therefore, BJ forbidden to post information publicly available on its own website. So legally, it was okay for the county clerk to do it, but nobody else was allowed. United States District Judge Robert E. Payne recently ruled that the state's 2008 law is a violation of First Amendment rights. It is a victory for B.J., but this does not solve the original problem of privacy.
So how this impact you? This means that if you can do everything possible to protect you against fraud and identity theft, your local government may bypass your security efforts by posting your personal information online. B. J. combat led to the resolution of certain problems and prompted some states to sanitize the data, but the battle is far from over.
the site ofVisit B. J., The Virginia Watchdog, to become more informed about the search for a woman to point out what is wrong and to fight for what is right.
You can try to protect you against the new account fraud by the establishment of a credit freeze or fraud alerts, which provides an extra layer of protection. And consider making an investment in identity theft protection. Because when all else fails, you have someone watching your back.
Robert Siciliano, identity theft speaker, discusses Social Security numbers.
Robert Siciliano is CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com, an expert on identity theft, professional speaker, security analyst, published author and television news correspondent. Siciliano works with Fortune 1000 and start-up companies as a consultant on product launches, branding, messaging, representation, SEO and media. the thoughts and advice of Siciliano on all these issues often appear in both television and print media news, including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, Forbes and USA Today. He has 25 years of safety training as a member of the American Society for Industrial Security. He is the author of two books, including The Safety Minute: Living on high alert; How to take control of your personal safety and to prevent fraud . He also established a partnership with Uni-Ball to help raise awareness of the growing threat of identity theft and provide tips on how you can protect yourself.