| (Editor's Note: This the second part of a series on the availability of personal information over the Internet, particularly in Fort Bend County. Ensuing stories will appear in Tuesday and Wednesday editions of the Fort Bend Herald.)
"Public record" has taken on a new meaning for people like Gary Geick, Precinct 1, Place 2 Justice of the Peace in Fort Bend County.
Geick has been getting incessant phone calls for some time, mostly financial in nature, and couldn't figure out why.
When informed some of his financial information was included in records placed on the Internet by Fort Bend County Clerk Dianne Wilson's office, the picture began to take focus.
"I guess some of them are getting it right out of the county. I get two or three phone calls a night, and I'm getting tired of it," Geick said, adding the most recent call attempting to convince him to invest in stocks was received just last week. "I asked the guy, 'Why are you calling me? and he said, 'Well, you have substantial income.' I asked him, 'Where did you get that information?' and he said, 'Well, it's public record.'"
In fact, there are between 15 and 20 million public records of Fort Bend County citizens being published on the county clerk's Web site and being sold by that office, some in bulk form, according to County Clerk Dianne Wilson.
But Geick and others like him want to put a stop to that practice.
"We don't need that happening out here, and she can stop it," Geick said. "I wouldn't think she would want information about her out there."
Wilson said individuals need to be cautious about what information is put on records filed at the courthouse because many of them contain information such as social security numbers, bank names and account numbers, driver's license numbers, holdings and even medical information.
But Geick said he believes the average person would have no idea such data is listed in public records, or even that many records, such as those filed in conjunction with probate and real estate matters, are public in the first place.
"Nobody knows about it," Geick said, admitting even he had no idea such information was being recorded and made public. "I wouldn't let anybody have all that information. I really don't want them putting that out there anymore."
Richmond Mayor Hilmar Moore agreed, and said the electronic bulk sale of Fort Bend County's 15 to 20 million public records for $2,000 should be halted immediately as well. That same information, when requested in paper from at the courthouse, would cost the requester $1 per document, and experts like David Bloys say their publication over the Internet is costing the county in more ways than one.
"When I did a study on Fort Bend County, I don't think I found a single document without personal, sensitive information on it," he said. "People didn't worry about those records because they weren't concerned. It was supposed to be there at the courthouse."
Bloys is a retired private investigator specializing in frauds, stalking cases and political investigations, and who is trying to get legislation passed that would prohibit county officials from publishing the document images over the Internet, stop vendors from marketing the information and prevent the bulk sale of public records.
In the meantime, people like Moore continue to have their private information made public.
"I think that's wrong," he said. "It's private. I resent private citizens' information being available (via the Internet). It's just as wrong as it can be. This is a serious thing. Terrorists and identity thieves can get their hands on this information. I had no idea it was being put out there."
Another prominent Fort Bend County citizen, who served as executor for an estate, also was angered when informed details of those holdings as well as bank account numbers and amounts were available via the county clerk's Web site.
"I had no idea at all. It just doesn't seem right, does it?"
The man, who requested his identity be withheld to protect the estate, said, "I'd kind of like to look at that (Web) site. Being a public record is one thing - putting it on the Internet is another. A guy in Pakistan is not going to come to Fort Bend County to look up records."
Yet another well-known Fort Bend County figure who declined to be identified, said, "This is rather scary, to say the least, and I don't like the fact that just anyone can go on the Internet and find out that kind of information on me or anyone else.
"It's very scary what can happen," he continued. "It makes it very easy for the people to go in and and get those social security numbers and set up bank accounts or whatever. It is a scary thing and it's good to know that it's there so we can do something about it. Of course, I don't know what we can do, now."
Both Wilson and Bloys said there is no way to get back information that has already been published, but Bloys said it's not too late to stop the imaging now.
Still, Wilson insists the Internet is a "fantastic tool" for publishing the county's public records, and said as custodian of those documents, she encouraged their imaging beginning more than a decade ago.
"You'd think someone would have to give (the county clerk) authority to do that," said a familiar Fort Bend County resident. "That's scary, too - that they don't."
Geick agreed, and said the thought that identity thieves could so easily get their hands on sensitive information is unsettling at the least, and something he would like to stop.
"I really don't want them doing that anymore," he said. "I don't want to end up $200,000 in the hole because somebody stole my identity."
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