One Million
Records Missing From County Site
David Bloys
Posted 10-03-12
If you depended on the Tarrant County Website in
2008 for any kind of professional
due-diligence report, or you contracted with an abstractor who
did, you should know nearly a million records were
missing from the County Clerk's Website for six months according to Tarrant County
Clerk Mary Louise Garcia.
Garcia made the announcement in a press release
last week announcing the missing document were
back online. Garcia said she took the documents
offline six months ago after the Tarrant County
Sherriff's office notified her that suspects
arrested in New Mexico might have mined data
from county websites nationwide to create false
identities.
The Tarrant County Clerk's office immediately
began an audit of the twelve million public
records the county has online to determine which
documents contained sensitive private
information. Garcia immediately ordered the
removal of a million records from the website.
We applaud Garcia for being more concerned for
the security of Tarrant County citizens than the
convenience of international data miners and
identity thieves who exploit the county online
records for both legal and illegal purposes.
Unfortunately Garcia, wavered in her dedication
to the citizens of Tarrant County and has put
the documents back online with no assurance from
either the website or the Clerk's Office that
all the sensitive information has been redacted,
or that the information is reliable or
authentic.
You Are At
Risk - Not the Clerk or the Clerk's Website
The Tarrant County website
disclaimer emphasizes that the County Clerk
does not certify the authenticity of the
information contained on the site and assumes no
responsibility for any information you may find
or not find. The website disclaimer states, "The County Clerk shall under no
circumstance be responsible for any error or
omission which may occur in these records, nor
liable for any actions taken as a result of
reliance upon any information contained within
this web site from whatever source, or any other
consequence from such reliance".
Mitigating Risk for
Abstractors and Title Companies
Every search you do online is an opportunity for
a missed document that could someday result in
million dollar suit against you. In the Tarrant
County example any search you did has a one in
12 chance of having records you never would have
seen. If you are concerned about the integrity
of your reports and protecting your company from
lawsuits and claims against your E&O you should
carefully examine the disclaimers of websites
used as a resource by your company, employees or
contract abstractors. Most website disclaimers
state clearly that you cannot rely on their
website
for accurate information and only your company
is at risk if you ignore their warnings.
If you
find a 1 in 12 chance of being sued too risky
for your company or customers, you can mitigate
your risk by relying
on insured local abstractors who physically
visit the courthouse. You can find Texas
abstractors who believe you and your customers
deserve accurate information from a responsible
source here.
Mitigating Your Personal Risk
Garcia suggests searching the county web site
and then asking for a redaction form from your
county clerk if you find unredacted information.
This is always a good idea but should you really
have to search for your sensitive records that
should never have been placed online in the
first place. A better idea is to ask your local
county official to remove all document images
from the county web site. Very few states
require county officials to publish public
records online but only to make them available
at the courthouse. If any of your documents are
visible on the county web site it is your local
officials who have put you at risk. Contact
information for county officials is
available at the National Association of
Counties Officials. If you would like a local
lawyer to analyze your case for free you can
click here.
Mitigating Risk for
County Officials
If you are a county
official responsible for posting public records
online you may want to read how disclaimers
won't keep you in office if your website is
found to be used by criminals to steal
identities in
Don’t Let Identity Theft Rob Your Election .
If you think redaction will protect you or
your constituents it may be because you believe the hype of redaction
software salesmen. You should read
The Truth About
Redaction.
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