Florida Govt Web Site Exposes Personal Info

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Florida’s Local 6 News has a special report about a woman’s identity being stolen from her marriage license publicly posted on the Orange County controller’s official records Web site.

“Lo and behold, my original marriage certificate with the incorrect birth date had nothing blacked out on it,” Bering said. “Both my and my husband’s Social Security numbers were there for anyone to see for free.”

The private information should not have been visible, according to Orange County Comptroller Martha Haynie.

“On marriage licenses, my understanding is, that has been our practice for a while to cover those up as they are recorded and if something got missed, then that is our error,” Haynie said.

Anyone who was married in Florida should search for their names on the State Official Records Web site to verify that their private information is not visible. If your information is visible, you will need to call 877.326.8689 to have your information blackened within 24 hours.

It is important that Florida residents are proactive in determining if their personal information is exposed on the Web site. The security breach will not be rectified until January 2008.

Local 6 News reported that Haynie is paying a vendor about $500,000 to cover up all Social Security numbers by January 2008.

Source: Local 6 News

Written by MCruz on October 5th, 2006 with 2 comments.
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