Privacy bills may fix one problem but cause another

A legislative task force unveiled three draft bills Tuesday that would amend Utah's open-record law to prohibit public access to addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers.

But in lawmakers' attempt to lower a canopy of privacy over government records in an attempt to combat such problems as identity theft, they may also create enough cover to let other types of fraud happen, some experts said.

During the meeting of the Government Records Access and Management Task Force, representatives from the real-estate and consumer-credit industries said under the proposed bills, one John Smith would appear like another John Smith with virtually no way to confirm the identity of anyone.

The danger in that, said Paul Newton with the Utah Land and Title Association, is that real-estate purchases and prices would be impossible to guarantee by title companies as well as home appraisers, being that those businesses rely upon public government records.

Some lawmakers on the task force have expressed concerns that there is the potential for government records to be used for identity theft.

Newton urged task-force members to realize that by trying to combat the "crisis" of identity theft, they will in turn create a "crisis" for the real-estate industry.

Salt Lake County Recorder Gary Ott said most identity fraud perpetrators rely on getting personal information directly from victims and not government records.

He said complying with the proposal by removing such information from records would not only prove costly and prohibitive to many government agencies, but would only prevent perhaps a handful of fraud cases.

Candice Daley with the Consumer Data Industry Association said the proposed change in Utah's law would also have profound negative impact on credit reports, employment reporting, consumer-fraud law-enforcement and the ability to track down and collect on child support.

Daley pointed out that each year in the U.S. there are 42 million address changes, three million marriages and divorces that result in name changes, and at least 4.5 million people who have the last names Smith and Jones. Many businesses rely on Social Security numbers, date of birth and addresses to identify debtors or to track those who try to escape their fraudulent past.

Task force co-chair Sen. Dave Thomas, R-South Weber, said they are trying to balance citizen privacy with other issues.

Timothy Shea with the State Administrative Office of the Courts said it would be nearly impossible for the courts to follow such a change in the law, being that courts state-wide receive a substantial number of documents every day and no real practical way to redact the information.