Putting records online prompts disagreement

Hundreds of thousands of Social Security numbers were recently removed from property records posted on the Oklahoma County Web site.

County Clerk Carolynn Caudill is proud of the removal, while her opponent in an upcoming election has criticized her for posting the information online in the first place.

State law prevents county clerks from altering documents received by their offices. But because online records aren't official records, Caudill was able to hire a firm in July that found and removed Social Security numbers from about 400,000 of the more than 8 million property records her office has made available to the public on the county Web site.

The numbers were removed a week ago, but her opponent, Stan Inman, said the numbers should've been removed before the documents ever hit the Web.

Inman, a former county commissioner, said he's "pretty hacked off” because he thinks Caudill made the county's Web site a possible resource for identity thieves.

Numbers still available

"No she didn't,” said Joey Senat, past president of Freedom of Information Oklahoma and an Oklahoma State University journalism professor.

Senat said "every study” he has seen shows that public records are not a significant source of identity theft, and Inman admitted he can't prove anyone has had their identity stolen because Caudill had documents with Social Security numbers online.

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