Florida extends deadline for redacting data from online records -- again

Computerworld - County clerks in Florida have been given more time by state lawmakers to remove Social Security numbers, bank account details, credit card numbers and other personal data from images of public records posted on their Web sites.

The state Senate early this month voted 40-0 for a bill (download document) that gives court clerks until Jan. 1, 2011, to redact personally identifiable data from images of title deeds, tax liens, court papers and other public records filed with their offices. Until then, individuals in the state who want personal data removed from their online public records must specifically ask for it to be redacted.

The bill (HB 7197), which passed the state House of Representatives by a 115-0 margin in April, extends by three years the previous deadline of Jan. 1, 2008, that clerks had been given for accomplishing the task.

This is the second time the deadline has been extended. As part of an October 2002 state statute, Florida clerks originally had until Jan 1, 2007, to remove the data. In Florida's 2006 legislative session, that deadline was pushed back by one year.

The latest extension is likely to come as a setback for those advocating against the posting of personal data on county and state government Web sites. Florida is one of several states where images of public records containing all sorts of personal data have been made accessible online to anyone in the world via the Web.

"The whole thing is just stupid," said B.J. Ostergren, a Virginia-based privacy advocate who runs a Web-site called The Virginia Watchdog to highlight the problem. "I can't understand why they are giving clerks three more years to remove Social Security numbers off those records," when other counties in Florida have already completed their redactions or are well on their way to doing so, she said.

"It's unbelievable that they are [extending the deadline again] just because some clerks are whining and moaning that it can't be done," Ostergren said. "How dumb is that?"

But David Ellspermann, clerk of the circuit court in Florida's Marion County and legislative chairman of the Florida Association of Court Clerks and Comptrollers, said the extension had little to do with public records. It was largely driven, Ellspermann said, by the need to give court officials more time to remove personal data from the tens of millions of court documents in the state. Some of those documents also are available online.

Redacting data from voluminous court documents is even more complex and time-consuming than removing it from public records is, Ellspermann said. He added that instead of creating separate deadlines for redacting the public records and court documents, the state legislature decided to give officials more time on both types of documents.