ACLU Says Records Removal Solves One Problem, But Creates Another

Under fire from the ACLU of Virginia and some local residents, King George County Clerk Charles V. Mason announced today that he would not be posting County records online when those records contain Social Security Numbers. The announcement comes a week after the ACLU of Virginia asked Mason to remove Social Security Numbers from public documents placed online.


However, Mason’s solution falls short of the ACLU’s objective, which is to have the records posted online but with the Social Security Numbers and other private information redacted. Mason claims that he does not have the authority to edit records prior to placing them online.
“This is not an either/or situation,” said ACLU of Virginia executive director Kent Willis. “We must figure out a way both to protect the privacy of individuals and to take advantage of the Internet, which offers us the best opportunity to finally make public documents easily available to the public. The last thing we want to do is to is to use privacy concerns as an excuse not to post public documents on the Internet.”
“We now look to the General Assembly for guidelines that will protect privacy while facilitating use of the Internet for increase access to public documents,” added Willis. “Fortunately, this is not a liberal versus conservative issue, nor is it a Republican or Democratic Party issue. Everyone wants it, and that should make it fairly easy to find a solution.”
“It also gives us an opportunity to look at what kind of information we allow in many documents in the first place,” continued Willis. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for land transfer records to contain the Social Security Numbers of the individuals involved.
“Now, as we place existing records online, we will have the added step of removing Social Security Numbers. But in the future, if we do this right, those records will not contain Social Security Numbers in the first place, whether they are sitting in a dusty file cabinet in a county courthouse or available to the world on the Internet.”

Contact: Kent Willis, Executive Director, ACLU of Virginia, 804-644-8022