The Pennsylvania Newspaper Association understands the importance of prohibiting identity theft. It supports laws against those who would misuse information gained from public records for purposes of theft, fraud or other criminal activities.

But the PNA is concerned with legislation that would restrict, or make secret, legitimate public records. We believe that legislators should target criminals who misuse public records, not the public records themselves.

Senate Bill 700 illustrates this overly broad approach. 

• It gives state agencies unlimited discretion to prohibit release of “personal information.”  This information includes, but is not limited to, name, addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth. 

Under its provisions, a phone directory could become a restricted document.

• Under this bill’s provisions, the basic documents of a free and open society would become secret. Among them:

Voting records – Citizens, political officials and news organizations routinely check voting records to make certain that voters are legitimate, that voters are properly registered, and so forth.

But these records contain name, address, date of birth, and often times phone numbers. They could be made secret.

Tax records – Citizens, corporations, real estate companies, insurance firms and banks, among others, routinely check tax records for a variety of legitimate purposes. They may want to know of outstanding tax liens on a property, or the value of a property. They may want to know business sales tax collections. Names and addresses are essential components of these records. Without names and addresses, the data is worthless.

Crime records – Citizens regularly read news accounts of crimes, large and small, that are released by police departments, then published in newspapers or broadcast on TV or radio. This information alerts communities about criminals and crime trends – a burglar in the neighborhood, a rise in drug dealing, a bank robber on the loose. These records, by their very nature, contain the names and address of crime victims. These information, essential to the credibility of the records, has been publish information since the formation of the nation. Making it secret would be akin to the worst excesses of the Soviet secret police society.

Financial records – Citizens not infrequently ask to see public finance records – payrolls, salaries, contracts, budgets, spending documents – in order to understand the manner in which public officials are spending public monies. Much of this information contains names and addresses. If agencies could restrict release of names and addresses, there would be no information available on payrolls, salaries or vendors.

• The Fourth Estate, journalists, has a historic role of examining the operations of government. If agencies may not release the names of people, journalists are left with only bureaucratic policies and rules to report on.  Government becomes faceless.  Journalists will be unable to report on those in government and those served by government.

• Further, identification of individuals strengthens the credibility of newsworthy articles.  Without such information, the public receives only generalized information and unverifiable facts.

In the effort to thwart identity theft:

• Instead of limiting the release of information, legislation should focus on penalizing those who use information for illegal activity. There should be stern penalties for identity theft.

• Companies that misuse personal information should be subject to stiff financial penalties. The state’s telemarketing control law is an excellent example.