- Oct 28, 1999
- 62,484
- 8,345
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There is a lot of debate brewing in my area right now over public record vs. personal privacy. The current topic of debate is an online assessor site for my county. With it, you can search for an address and it'll give you who owns the house, how much they paid for it, a picture of the house, floor layout of the house, and taxible value of the home. I find it frightening that you can find all of this information from the luxury of your home computer. And to top things off, the are now wanting to add a name search to the site.
In theory, if you knew the city I lived in and my first and last name, you could look up my county, do a simple google search to find my assessors site, and then find my exact street address with a picture of my home, the layout of my house, and how much I paid for it. That's just too much IMHO.
Another hot topic is concealed weapons permit. Every year the newspaper publishes a listing of first names and last names of everyone that has been issued a concealed carry permit broken down by county. Once again, far too much information.
Yes, I know I can find this stuff by going down to the county office building and look it up, but that at least requires a bit of effort, and isn't as accessible to people outside of the area. But still...are we getting carried away with how much personal information we let get published?
Here's an article from my local newspaper this weekend -
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IOWA CITY -- How easy should it be to find information about where people live, the layout of their homes and what they pay in taxes?
That's a debate government officials have taken on in Johnson County as more and more information is made available on the county Web site.
The Privacy Policy Committee will meet to discuss this issue at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the County Administration Building, 913 S. Dubuque St.
The portions of the county Web site at the center of this debate deal with the recorder's, treasurer's and assessor's offices. These departments can be found by selecting from a menu at www.johnson-county.com. The assessor's and treasurer's Web sites have been up for about two years, and the recorder's was added in mid-May. The information found on their Web sites has always been available over the telephone or in person at the various offices.
Supervisor Terrence Neuzil, a member of the Privacy Policy Committee, said he doesn't understand why the debate has surfaced now.
"We've already made the investment in the technology," he said. "And it's been a good investment. We have a more efficient government and a more accessible government because of the technology, and we should use it to the fullest extent."
Some are concerned that having the information available 24 hours a day for anonymous Internet searches makes it too easy to find personal information.
Johnson County Assessor Bill Greazel said he doesn't see the point of that argument, since the information is public record and can be retrieved in other ways.
"You have to think, are we in the business to make things hard or easy?" he said.
Laurie Schipper, executive director of the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said she wants the information taken off the Internet.
"Our position is simple: We believe it does put victims who are attempting to keep themselves and their children safe at risk. It takes that option away if their addresses are published, especially in such an easily accessible format," she said. "It makes it difficult for battered women to develop safety plans."
The Cedar Rapids Assessor's Office went through the same debate in spring 2002. Elected officials in Cedar Rapids removed property owners' names from the Web site to protect their privacy.
Greazel said there are other ways to keep information private.
"If you don't want your information public, change the title on your property. Then they can't find you," he said.
The recorder's Web site shows deeds, mortgages, contracts and affidavits. Searches on that site are done by name. Johnson County Recorder Kim Painter said her site would be of little use to the public without the name search because people would either have to know the parcel number or some other number that they would have to find from another office.
In addition to the assessed value of a property, the assessor's Web site shows property owners' names, features of the home, a basic map of the layout and lot size. Information can be looked up by address, parcel number, neighborhood or through a mapping system.
The assessor's site is linked to the treasurer's Web site, which shows tax rates and whether taxes have been paid. The treasurer's site can be searched using addresses or parcel numbers.
Both Greazel and Johnson County Treasurer Tom Kriz said they would like to add a name search to their sites.
"I think public information is public information," Kriz said. "I don't think you can pick and choose how you give it out."
The state treasurer's site, www.iowatreasurers.org, can be searched by name.
Greazel said having the information online makes less work for his office because there aren't as many appeals to assessed values. Painter said phone traffic and costs for her department have decreased since making information available online.
Painter said she believes the debate will probably be settled at the state level.
"The law still has one foot in the 19th century where you had to look things up in books and one in the 21st century. We're at an interesting crossroads."
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In theory, if you knew the city I lived in and my first and last name, you could look up my county, do a simple google search to find my assessors site, and then find my exact street address with a picture of my home, the layout of my house, and how much I paid for it. That's just too much IMHO.
Another hot topic is concealed weapons permit. Every year the newspaper publishes a listing of first names and last names of everyone that has been issued a concealed carry permit broken down by county. Once again, far too much information.
Yes, I know I can find this stuff by going down to the county office building and look it up, but that at least requires a bit of effort, and isn't as accessible to people outside of the area. But still...are we getting carried away with how much personal information we let get published?
Here's an article from my local newspaper this weekend -
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IOWA CITY -- How easy should it be to find information about where people live, the layout of their homes and what they pay in taxes?
That's a debate government officials have taken on in Johnson County as more and more information is made available on the county Web site.
The Privacy Policy Committee will meet to discuss this issue at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the County Administration Building, 913 S. Dubuque St.
The portions of the county Web site at the center of this debate deal with the recorder's, treasurer's and assessor's offices. These departments can be found by selecting from a menu at www.johnson-county.com. The assessor's and treasurer's Web sites have been up for about two years, and the recorder's was added in mid-May. The information found on their Web sites has always been available over the telephone or in person at the various offices.
Supervisor Terrence Neuzil, a member of the Privacy Policy Committee, said he doesn't understand why the debate has surfaced now.
"We've already made the investment in the technology," he said. "And it's been a good investment. We have a more efficient government and a more accessible government because of the technology, and we should use it to the fullest extent."
Some are concerned that having the information available 24 hours a day for anonymous Internet searches makes it too easy to find personal information.
Johnson County Assessor Bill Greazel said he doesn't see the point of that argument, since the information is public record and can be retrieved in other ways.
"You have to think, are we in the business to make things hard or easy?" he said.
Laurie Schipper, executive director of the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said she wants the information taken off the Internet.
"Our position is simple: We believe it does put victims who are attempting to keep themselves and their children safe at risk. It takes that option away if their addresses are published, especially in such an easily accessible format," she said. "It makes it difficult for battered women to develop safety plans."
The Cedar Rapids Assessor's Office went through the same debate in spring 2002. Elected officials in Cedar Rapids removed property owners' names from the Web site to protect their privacy.
Greazel said there are other ways to keep information private.
"If you don't want your information public, change the title on your property. Then they can't find you," he said.
The recorder's Web site shows deeds, mortgages, contracts and affidavits. Searches on that site are done by name. Johnson County Recorder Kim Painter said her site would be of little use to the public without the name search because people would either have to know the parcel number or some other number that they would have to find from another office.
In addition to the assessed value of a property, the assessor's Web site shows property owners' names, features of the home, a basic map of the layout and lot size. Information can be looked up by address, parcel number, neighborhood or through a mapping system.
The assessor's site is linked to the treasurer's Web site, which shows tax rates and whether taxes have been paid. The treasurer's site can be searched using addresses or parcel numbers.
Both Greazel and Johnson County Treasurer Tom Kriz said they would like to add a name search to their sites.
"I think public information is public information," Kriz said. "I don't think you can pick and choose how you give it out."
The state treasurer's site, www.iowatreasurers.org, can be searched by name.
Greazel said having the information online makes less work for his office because there aren't as many appeals to assessed values. Painter said phone traffic and costs for her department have decreased since making information available online.
Painter said she believes the debate will probably be settled at the state level.
"The law still has one foot in the 19th century where you had to look things up in books and one in the 21st century. We're at an interesting crossroads."
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