Category: Archives

The open public record system has been the mainstay of the U.S. democracy and economy since the earliest Colonial days. During the last 350 years, this open system has become as essential an infrastructure as roads, telephone lines, and airports. The American open public record allows citizens to oversee their government, facilitates a vibrant economy,…

The open flow of information is under attack in the United States as never before in an effort to protect privacy. This issue has united the far right and far left, Republicans and Democrats, federal and state governments, the Eagle Forum and the ACLU, even Phyllis Schlafly and Ralph Nader. In the past two years…

The Identity Theft Conundrum  “Identity theft” presents an inherent conundrum: The very attributes of modern commerce that consumers value and expect-rapid, easy, 24-hour access to a wide variety of innovative products, services, and information-make identity theft easy to perpetrate and difficult to detect. Similarly, the most effective tools for preventing and detecting identity theft often…

Open access to public records serves many valuable purposes in our democracy and provides many public benefits, ranging from preventing and detecting crime to locating missing children. (These public benefits are outlined in greater detail in the Coalition for Sensible Public Records Access paper, Public Benefits From Open Public Records.) The value of accessible public…