State pulls private info left online
By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published September 16, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
The secretary of state's office removed about 90,000 financial documents from its Web site Monday after learning they included scores of Social Security numbers and were publicly accessible for almost 10 months.
It was the second time in two years that the secretary of state site was found to contain sensitive personal information.
Officials said they believe all Social Security numbers now have been removed.
However, Virginia privacy activist Betty "BJ" Ostergren said she found numerous documents with Social Security numbers still on the site Monday afternoon.
"That's totally ridiculous," Ernest Brown, of Durango, said Monday. His and his wife's Social Security numbers were on a 2001 loan document on the site Monday morning, but were gone by day's end.
"If only one person gets skinned by something like this, that's one too many, especially from the government," he said. "It just shouldn't happen."
Meanwhile, clerks in Jefferson and Montrose counties recently removed online access to property records because of sensitive information on them.
The attorney general sent a letter Monday to clerks statewide advising them to check online records for Social Security numbers and remove them.
Eighteen months ago, Secretary of State Mike Coffman shut down a part of his Web site for the same problem. At that time, he promised to launch a process to remove that information.
"We are all vulnerable to identity theft - private citizens and public officials alike," Coffman said in a news release issued when he took down the site in March 2007. "It is in everyone's best interest that we do a better job of protecting the personal information that we collect."
Coffman's office then hired a company that removed the numbers from 500,000 documents, known as Uniform Commercial Code financing statements, spokesman Richard Coolidge said Monday.
These are forms used to notify the government that a company or bank has loaned money or financed payment for a service or product to an individual. About 5 million are filed with the state, Coolidge said.
But because of a secretary of state's office oversight, the company hired to redact Social Security numbers from the 2001-2005 documents didn't see documents filed from June 2001 to December 2002, Coolidge said.
The secretary of state's office assumed all of the numbers had been removed when it posted the documents online Nov. 21, 2007.
On Monday, Coffman's office removed documents from that period to redact the numbers, and is installing software to make sure documents don't include the information.
Coolidge said newer Uniform Commercial Code forms do not include Social Security numbers.
Ostergren, the activist, alerted Coffman to the problem last year and said that last week she found more than 3,000 Social Security numbers on the site.
Ostergren said Coffman's office has done a "lackadaisical" job of removing the numbers.
"They knew this site was putting people at risk," Ostergren said. "Whoever did this should be fired."
County clerks are struggling to balance the need for public access to documents and the privacy of individuals, said Pam Anderson, Jefferson County clerk.
Anderson said she removed millions of documents from the county Web site two weeks ago because of concerns about Social Security numbers.
On Thursday, Montrose County Clerk Francine Tipton Long said she removed all scanned documents from the county Web site.
Long said she doesn't know how many documents include sensitive information and she doesn't know when they will be made available online.
"I will not make any move until I'm totally 100 percent positive that no record will go out there with critical information," Long said.
kimm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2361 Staff writer Ashleigh Oldland contributed to this report.
What's next
* The state attorney general's office is looking into legislation to help government officials handle privacy issues with public documents.
The office encourages people to access its Identity Theft Repair Kit at www.ago.state.co.us
* Colorado county clerks are planning to ask lawmakers to pass legislation that clears up legal contradictions about dealing with sensitive personal information in public documents.
* Some clerks have taken property documents off their Web sites and are trying to figure out ways to handle personal information before posting the papers.
* The secretary of state's office is planning to install software that checks for personal information, including Social Security numbers.
Officials said any person who finds such information on the state Web site should contact the Business Division at 303-894-2200.
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September 16, 2008
8:37 a.m.
Suggest removal
mokey writes:
maybe the Secretary of State should focus on his own house rather than run for another office.
September 16, 2008
9:12 a.m.
Suggest removal
windbourne writes:
>>maybe the Secretary of State should focus on his own house rather than run for another office.
Glad that he is running. He will be about the only pub that I will vote for (currently, I live in HR).
He has made mistakes, but unlike so many other pubs, he admits them. In fact, he does not try to shift the blame, or lie, or even cover it up. The man is an honest pub, not a neo-con.
Look at Palin covering up, lying, and acting like W, cheney, Rove, Delay, hastart, Clinton, reagan and Nixon. Coffman has the right attitude. While he and I do not see eye to eye on issues, I know that he will try to do the right thing as opposed to those that do it for the money.
September 17, 2008
10:38 a.m.
Suggest removal
dlorang writes:
Windbourne: Since you don't see eye to eye on issues with Coffman, why not vote for Hank Eng? Just because the media says Coffman is a shoe-in, doesn't mean he should be. If you want people you can trust in government, I assume you're not voting for McCain. So send some support to the U.S. Congress for Obama, and vote for Hank Eng. His integrity and commitment to everything he's accomplished in his life will follow him to Washington.