Your SS Number Is Just a Click Away

To get that information, Ostergren needs only to go to the web sites of various county clerks that publish their residents' personal documents online. There, she can download mortgage papers, divorce decrees, tax liens, deeds and power-of-attorney documents. These papers, typically filed with the county clerk as part of the public records archive, have in recent years found their way online, where anyone can access them for free or a nominal fee of $25 or $50 for a month's unlimited access.

Ostergren has made it her full-time job as the founder of Virginia Watchdog to alert legislators and the general public about what's out there. "It's dangerous, and it's just reckless of those clerks to have these records online," she says. According to a November 2004 report by the Government Accountability Office, as many as 28% of U.S. counties post their records — including people's Social Security numbers — on the Internet.

Your Private Life, Going Public
Many folks don't realize that as soon as they file a document with their county, it becomes part of the public record. Birth certificates, driver's license information, marriage and mortgage papers and, ultimately, death certificates are all fair game.

Of course, anyone can go down to their county clerk's office and request hard copies of such papers, explains David Bloys, a title examiner in Shallowater, Texas. But this requires a fair amount of effort — far more than what your typical nosy neighbor is willing to expend. The people who go through these records on site are usually professionals, like title company workers, attorneys or licensed private investigators who are held accountable if the sensitive information included in these documents is used illegally.