In a small but significant victory in the battle to regain control of Social Security numbers, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled this week that a data broker seeking 8 million pages of real estate documents is not entitled to the Social Security numbers contained within the documents and that the broker must pay for the redaction of the numbers from the documents.

Showing an appropriate level of sensitivity to the increased threat of identity theft associated with the unwarranted distribution of Social Security numbers, the Chief Justice of the Court specifically cited the possibility of identity theft in the written opinion.

According to the New Jersey Star Ledger:

The court unanimously agreed that the documents, requested by a business that wants to sell electronic access to this information, are public records under the state’s Open Public Records Act. But it stressed some of the personal information, if released, would hurt residents.

“The request was made on behalf of a commercial business planning to catalogue and sell the information by way of an easy-to-search computerized database. Were that to occur, an untold number of citizens would face an increased risk of identity theft,” Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote for the court.

Bergen County officials called the decision a victory for all New Jersey residents concerned about identity theft.

“While the public has a right to public records, the public also has a right to privacy of personal information,” said County Executive Dennis McNerney.

In my opinion, the court has struck the correct balance between satisfying the public’s right to know as codified in the Open Public Records Act, while also protecting the privacy of personal information that can be used by identity criminals. 

It is refreshing to see that courts across the country are taking the threat of identity theft – resulting from personal information contained within public documents – seriously.  This is a great trend that has been slowly developing over the last ten years.

May that trend continue.