Should Public Court Records Be Available Online?

from the privacy-concerns-vs.-the-law dept

When is a public record not a public record? Apparently, once it's been computerized. Last fall there was some debate over the topic when a county court clerk in Cincinnati digitized a bunch of court records. While, by law, the records were all public, some in the community expressed concern over whether their privacy was violated when the data was so easily available. The same issue is now getting attention in Alabama, where a study found that many courts won't release computerized documents - even though they're legally required to. Many cite technical difficulties in doing so - but some say it's for privacy reasons. They're afraid the info can be used to get things like someone's address and social security number. Some people are saying that the laws need to be rewritten to deal with this issue. When the original laws were written, they were intended for someone who would go down to the court and physically have to look up the information. With computerized records and the web, however, just about anyone can do a fairly complete search of the records. Some are advocating that any data available online first needs to be cleaned of any private info. There are also suggestions that only "the press" be allowed to have more detailed access. Of course, these days, when anyone can be "the press", I'm not sure how far that idea will go.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Jun 2003 @ 7:50am

    apples and oranges

    someone should remember that digitizing the records doesn't magicaly make them available online. Both camps in this argument can be correct. The records are converted to digital form (easier retention, storage, backup, and access) . But the whole database is accessable only from a closed network. You still need to come down to the hall of records and use a local terminal. case closed.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Csharpener, 3 Jun 2003 @ 9:04am

      Re: apples and oranges

      It's a security issue.
      Even if records are online, they're not really useful unless they're in some kind of national database.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.