State Cannot Force Removal of SSNs From Privacy Advocate's Site

Slashdot notes a story about privacy advocate Betty Ostergren, who runs a website that highlights privacy problems that result from posting of unredacted public documents such as land and tax-lien records posted on government web sites. Her site posts Social Security numbers obtained from public records and are part of her campaign to show how easy it is to access personal information on the web.

Although legistlation was introduced in Virginia to combat her website, Judge Robert Payne of the U.S. District Court for the East District of Virginia last Friday shot down the attempt to censure her, writing

"It is difficult to imagine a more archetypal instance of the press informing the public of government operations through government records than Ostergren's posting of public records to demonstrate the lack of care being taken by government to protect the private information of individuals."

See complete article in COMPUTERWORLD Security.