Texas AG issues records mandate.

In Texas, it is now a crime for government officials to release public records containing Social Security numbers.

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According to a recent legal opinion issued by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, county clerks could face six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for releasing records to the public that contain Social Security numbers.

In a decision that will have profound implications for Texas officials--and may even spur similar rules in other U.S. states--Abbott made it mandatory for county clerks and other government officials to remove Social Security numbers from public documents before distributing them in an attempt to prevent easy access by identity thieves and others who may misuse the numbers to access individuals' bank accounts and personal information.

Some county officials told The Houston Chronicle that complying with the rule may cost local taxpayers millions, including extra hours of labor to remove Social Security numbers from government documents. Others predicted that public officials' efforts to comply with state and federal privacy laws might cause lending delays for homebuyers and those trying to dose commercial real estate deals.

According to the Chronicle, Texas' public information law was amended two years ago to state that county clerks "may" remove Social Security numbers on documents they archive and distribute to the public. Abbott, citing other portions of state law and federal law, said Texans have a right to keep their Social Security numbers private. Therefore, county officials are required to delete them before releasing documents to the public.

For county clerks, these documents largely involve real estate titles and liens but also include birth and death certificates and marriage licenses.

Abbott's decision could require combing through public records going back to the 1930s, when the Social Security system was created. No one is sure what it will cost counties to comply.

Abbott's mandate states that disclosure of confidential information such as Social Security numbers is a criminal offense under the Texas Public Information Act--and that applies to all county clerk records.

Clerks are not required to redact Social Security numbers from original, certified documents, but they are required to remove the numbers and note they have done so when releasing them to the public, according to Abbott's opinion.

Some clerks said it could take a year to create a duplicate set of records sans Social Security numbers. A spokesman for the Harris County Clerk's office, which doesn't post records online but does offer public access terminals with electronic images of original records, told the Chronicle that it will cost local taxpayers at least $17.4 million for new software and servers to remove Social Security numbers from the electronic documents.

As increasing volumes of public documents--marriage and divorce records, speeding tickets, and property and tax records--are posted online and made available to anyone, many state and local governments will be grappling with this issue.

The Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General said that 16 percent of the 99,000 fraud cases it investigated in the 12-month period that ended September 30, 2006, involved the misuse of Social Security numbers.

But thanks to watchdog websites--The Virginia Watchdog (www.opcva.com/ watchdog), NewsforPublicOfficials.com, and StolenIDSearch.com, for example--that alert consumers to the problem and to other sites that reveal private data such as addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers, consumers and governments are waking up to the danger.

Gradually, states and counties have begun removing images of documents that contain Social Security numbers, or they have begun blacking out the numbers. According to The New York Times, four states, including New York, have removed links to images of public documents containing Social Security numbers.

Snohomish County, Washington, for example, recently decided to block 61 types of documents, including tax liens and marriage certificates, which are public but are not supposed to leave courthouses or state offices.