From roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Sat Jun 10 18:22:47 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k5B0Mljb018770; Sat, 10 Jun 2006 18:22:47 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l.rootsweb.com [66.43.16.22]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k5B0MkjP024146 for ; Sat, 10 Jun 2006 18:22:46 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l [127.0.0.1]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k5ALkxFI022491 for ; Sat, 10 Jun 2006 17:46:59 -0400 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.8/Submit) id k5ALkx40022490 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Sat, 10 Jun 2006 17:46:59 -0400 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [66.43.27.41]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with SMTP id k5AKC0FI022278 for ; Sat, 10 Jun 2006 16:12:00 -0400 Received: (from slist@localhost) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id k5AMlZhs000998 for roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com; Sat, 10 Jun 2006 16:47:35 -0600 X-Envelope-From: almb@sw.rr.com Sat Jun 10 16:47:35 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k5AMlZjb000989 for ; Sat, 10 Jun 2006 16:47:35 -0600 Received: from ms-smtp-03.texas.rr.com (ms-smtp-03.texas.rr.com [24.93.47.42]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k5AMlGEQ013277 for ; Sat, 10 Jun 2006 16:47:16 -0600 Received: from sw.rr.com (cpe-68-206-189-204.sw.res.rr.com [68.206.189.204]) by ms-smtp-03.texas.rr.com (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id k5AMlGwe016890 for ; Sat, 10 Jun 2006 17:47:16 -0500 (CDT) Message-ID: <448B4AC5.70208@sw.rr.com> Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 17:42:13 -0500 From: Margaret Miller User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com References: <200606102026.k5AKQYkZ018882@lists5.rootsweb.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: Symantec AntiVirus Scan Engine X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 Sender: roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Subject: [ROOTS-L] Re: Privacy Protection I realize that identity theft is a major problem in our society but it is not one that will be stemmed with the blockage of the SSDI. Nor is the refusal by the various states to release birth and death records serving any useful purpose. So long as we have public records the information is going to be available from one source or another. For the person with the time and inclination, one person can learn almost anything desired about another. Consider the commonly published obiturary and the vast amount of information that is contained therein. The application for a marriage license includes valuable information re both the respective bride and groom. Deeds, wills, probates, and other public records are sources of information for a would-be identity thief. All too many persons rush to post their family trees to the internet making their private information public knowledge. Using the term Living Doe to conceal the name of a family member is a farce. Consider this: One checks for the marriage of John Doe and Jane Roe. It is found with John being the husband and Jane is his spouse. Access the gedcom and one will find John Doe's date of birth and death but his spouse is listed as Living Roe. What has this accomplished? Her name, Jane Roe, was made known to me before I accessed the gedcom. Not only is the information one is trying to protect being posted to the internet but it is also being published in family histories. Maiden names of mothers are public knowledge. In an open society such as we have there is no such thing as privacy. Our lives are a matter of public record. Check it out.