ATS: Broward County Florida Reveals Residents' Social Security Numbers, On Purpose!

Following on the heals of the shocking revelation that AT&T has been collaborating to channel their Internet traffic through the NSA is another alarming government-sponsored privacy breach. Broward county is publising residents' social security numbers, driver's license numbers, photos, and even bank records on the county's official website. And worst of all, they're doing it on purpose.



Yesterday's AT&T/NSA collaboration to eavesdrop on the Internet communications of ordinary Americans is an egregious rift the facade of public trust, and a cold hard slap in our collective faces. This, however, is an enormous wake up call to the horrific incompetence rampant throughout all levels of government.

On one hand, all your private communications have been handed over to those who's job it is to spy on Americans. And on the other hand, the "government" has published your private details to those who would steal from you.

What, pray tell, will be the next item in this domino catastrophe of trust?

As an outsider looking in I see your lose of privacy and I ask,
Who will stand up for your privacy and your civil-rights?

The people elected into government won’t. What will you do to keep the freedoms the people before you fought and died for?

Perhaps we should look at this into another light. Perhaps we can use this information and track the activities of politicians and lobbyists? If people can use it against us, why shouldnt we use it against others?

I wonder how hard it actually is to find the information being posted if it was not posted.

Coincidentally I am sure, Broward County was made famous during the past federal election for being Democrat dominated and election fraud too.

Sorry DYepes - I doubt you'd find anything of interest about key politicians. Just mouthy voters.

So lets cross correlate this with other debates that are current hot button issues for a second.

An entire public records section essentially handed to document forgers and coyotes to pilfer at will? Oh wait but our government wants immigration reform to protect our homeland.....

Originally posted by Umbrax
As an outsider looking in I see your lose of privacy and I ask,
Who will stand up for your privacy and your civil-rights?

The people elected into government won’t. What will you do to keep the freedoms the people before you fought and died for?

Fight and die again?

This situation is totally unacceptable - and unlike the NSA/AT&T wiretapping, it can be prevented.


BTW Umbrax - are you entirely certain that Canada does not have similar breaches?

What on earth...?

How does doing this get back at us? Is that the point?

Unbeleivable.

Im not sure the wording behind the act, which I reading into now , but, this would seem to go against the privacy of information act of 1974.

Does anybody really think that the wiretapping is just for possible terrorist activities?

I do not believe that in a hundred years.

This like Nixon all over again, but that is fine and dandy many Supporter of the administration abuse of power and confidentiality while forcing companies to share private information think Nixon was just fine, the opposition was the ones been bad.

This scares me.... I live in Broward county! All this came out before I started on this board. I'm on my way to Broward's site to see what they're posting on me. If I find my data out there, me and somebody are going to have a long talk...not that it will do any good, but us stubborn rednecks are like that.

Note to the Mods: If I hadn't been searching the Tags I'd have never stumbled on this. They are a great tool.

I just saw this thread, and decided to play with Broward County's site for a little bit. I was easily able to find checking account numbers, credit card numbers, didn't see any socials yet, but I would not be surprised after all of that I have seen.

A criminal could just get the address, the name, the checking account, and all the bank info.. stroll down to the local Office Depot and pick up some printable checks! This is really bad, I hope we will be hearing more about this soon, as it seems like these things get swept under the rug really fast.

A large number of us pissed off Canadians have said SCREW IT! we just stopped using our social insurance numbers (Canadian social security), stopped using all forms of Gov't I.D., quit using banks, moved to credit unions where you can open up natural person deposit accounts with a notarized picture of yourself from a notary of the public, stopped carrying around our I.D. except for a Drivers licence but some guys in B.C. are working on it. Some are getting away with out it but it is a pain in the a$$ when cops pull you over, impound your vehicle & make you wait in jail until your court date. In which the judge will let you off 9 times out of ten for religious grounds or security concerns etc. We are so sick & tired of all the beraucratic B.S. going on, all the red tape, we are making a stand, sure there may only be roughly 800 of us but our numbers are growing. We are winning the war on income tax too. SOCIALISM MUST DIE!!!
You don't get the fruits of my labor, the Gov't role is to serve NOT control otherwise it's time for a new system.

yea niteboy those credit card numbers usually won't help you buy stuff online if there is no three digit verification number to go with it (the three little digits in the back). Those checking accoutn number however may pose some threat to theirmonetary assets.

And Battle of Batoche, Hey man I back your actions 100%.

Originally posted by DYepes
yea niteboy those credit card numbers usually won't help you buy stuff online if there is no three digit verification number to go with it (the three little digits in the back). Those checking accoutn number however may pose some threat to theirmonetary assets.
And Battle of Batoche, Hey man I back your actions 100%.

Without going into detail too much, I had an ex that had hold of my checking account info (and some checks) and was able to use the checks for pizza delivery. Well, I had to go into some major fighting to get these "illegally used checks" off of my record. Worse part was that the pizzas were delivered to "the workplace" of my ex, just so the location couldn't be tracked back. Imagine my surprise to have police knocking on my door at 11pm wanting to arrest me for passing off bad checks! The grand total got up to $700!!

Also, at least down here, you could order a pizza with a credit card number over the phone, and you just sign the paper when they get here.

I find this to be horrific. There is some modicum of privacy that we can expect, and though I see nothing wrong with putting out court cases that have come through, items can be blacked out to protect the privacy of the individual in these cases.

WTH!!!!

I haven't heard of this at all on any of our local news coverage. Miami Heat Mania takes up the first 30 minutes of the news and then everything else that follows seems like fluff before we are returned to sports and more Miami heat.

I'm going to read up on this right now and send an email to some acquaintances at our local news stations.

This is insane, reckless and criminal imo. How can a "government" agency provide such personal and sensitive information in this current day and age is beyond me. Nothing is scacred or personal anymore. Life sucks and I'm mad right now. How exactly are we fighting terrorism and illegal immigration if we're providing basically all the info others need to commit identity theft and fraud?

well I've just requested that my personal info be removed from the site. I don't have much on there, thank god, just property records

If you live in Broward you can do this too by emailing here
[email protected]

I suggest everyone regardless of where you live, check your local county website and see if you're at risk too.

still steaming, I had no clue!!!

Originally posted by worldwatcher
I suggest everyone regardless of where you live, check your local county website and see if you're at risk too.
still steaming, I had no clue!!!

A wise idea WorldWatcher, everyone should be checking to make sure that this isn't being done to them. Very good to know that you were able to get an address to be removed from the list. I'm checking right now, but I severely doubt New Orleans would even begin to know how to go about doing this. Still though...

Thanks worldwatcher for the email addy. I checked my name on the site earlier and didn't find anything there but I will send them an e-mail.

I do see the potential for finding some interesting info on there. Some of the real estate deals down here get real interesting when you start watching who's buying what and where. This might connect a few of the dots when examining the recent eminent domain problems here in Broward.

I sent an email to have my personal info removed. this is this response I recieved, which of course I am going to follow up on. However, I'm still miffed at the whole preposterous idea and thinks that State law needs to be changed so that this isn't an issue anymore. Why on earth would the State demand this information to be a county's website is beyond me. The logic of politicians bewilders me, close our borders, prevent terrorism, but let's scan all documents and post it on our sites even if they have social security numbers, names, dob's, and even bank acct info on there. Now I have to do the legwork to and go thru every document on me and my family to have my info removed. Excuse the big quote but this is the entire contents of the email I recieved.

Your information can only be removed from the website upon your written request, and with your identification of those documents which contain personal information that meets the criteria for redaction. Below is information regarding the redaction process and the role you must play in making certain the information is redacted:

In order to quickly process the huge volume of requests which come in to this office, we require that each individual review the document images associated with his or her name and list only those records containing information eligible for removal, as well as identifying the specific information. Such As:

Book 12345 Page 678 SS#123 45 6789

Note: when a document contains many pages, please indicate the specific page within the document where the information appears, such as:

Book 12345 Page 678 SS#123 45 6789 on 5th page.

To view and obtain this information go to www.broward.org/records, Click the Public Search. After obtaining the information to be redacted, please send it, in the above format, to [email protected].

NUMBERS ELIGIBLE FOR REDACTION:

The documents themselves are not removed from the website – the numbers listed below contained therein are electronically blocked from public view. Loan Numbers are not eligible for redaction.

• Social Security

• Bank Account

• Credit,

• Debit or Charge Card number(s)

• Driver’s License Numbers

• Green Card Numbers

• Birth Dates


DOCUMENTS ELIGIBLE FOR REDACTION:

(The images of the documents will not be available for viewing on our website.)

• Military Discharge

• Death Certificate

• Court Paper relating to Florida Rules of Family Law, Florida Rules of Juvenile Procedure or Florida Probate Rules).

While we share your concerns regarding the possible repercussions of having information made readily available, we are obligated to maintain our records in accordance with current law. Until such time as our legislators change those laws, we should all be vigilant about what information is placed on documents we know are going to be made public. While the official records have always been a matter of public record, laws changed effective in 2002 which required all recording offices in Florida to maintain an indexed and imaged system on the website. Advance notification was made available to the public to allow them the opportunity to request the redaction of their personal information before this law took affect. As I have stated, under current law, we are not at liberty to remove this information without written request of the parties involved.

Upon receipt of your written request, listing those documents of yours which meet the criteria for redaction, I will immediately take action to redact the information. Should you have additional questions, please feel free to contact me.

Name & Number Removed
Search and Copy Supervisor
Broward County Records

now I don't recall nor has anyone I spoke to about this recall ever recieving notification on this. Secondly this will not go away until legislation is changed and legislation will only change if the public is aware of the issue. However since most of us are completely ignorant of this issue, the law will continue to stand. We need to change whatever retarded legistation was made to allow this foolishness.


[edit on 6-25-2006 by worldwatcher]

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so, where is/was the ACLU on this issue??

i thought they were the self acclaimed righter of wrongs
and would not let people be abused thru improper laws