Big Brother Knows All

[Gregory Matthews]

I was doing some research on the Internet, a few minutes ago. To my surprise, an Internet site came up on the Google page with the name of my wife and our home address.

I immediately clicked on the site and found a page listing some 36 items of personal information about her: name, birthdate, political party affiliation, address, the fact that she typically votes by mail, telephone number and much more.

Everything was there that was needed to set up a false identity, except her Social Security Number. It was not listed.

The website identified itself as one that had purchased this information from the Colorado government and was in the public domain.

In looking further into this site, I believe that it contains personal information about thousands of Colorado citizens which is freely available to anyone who wants to search it. No payment is required.

Unbelievable.

By the way, there was an icon suggesting that this same information could be obtained for anyone living in the United States. I do not know if this was accurate.

[Gregory Matthews]

I did some further checking. The owner of the website is located in New Hampshire. I believe that he provides this information nationally.

Here is some of what he says:

Quote:

What’s the big idea building a website without my permission?

We did not need your permission to build a website.

What gives you the right to put MY information on it?

You do not own the information. It is public information. In a free country, anybody can freely communicate true facts lawfully obtained from a public record. Read on for the removal request option.

What about my right to privacy?

By definition, public information is not private. The State of Colorado provides this information to anybody who wants it. Click here to learn more.. . .

Yes, he claims that he will on some occasions remove names. However, he makes it very hard to do so. E.G. One of the criteria for getting your information removed it to correctly spell his name. A failure to do so will result in a refusal to remove your name.

Another aspect of his removal: He will not remove anything that is already posted. If he agrees to remove, he will not add any updated information that he gets. That is removal under his terms and there are more!

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

interesting, considering the US Census Bureau will not allow any census after 1940 to be published... and the US Census Bureau is under the auspices of the US Federal Statistics System, which is under the US Office of Management and Budget, which, in turn, is the largest office in the Executive Branch of the US Government.

The Census would show less information than that website. Not sure how that much *private* information is truly "public"....