Protecting Your Privacy

Almost any time you fill out a document for a government agency, the information you write down becomes public.

Mortgage deeds, public utility bills and police reports leave a trail of information about you. Such information is crucial for government agencies to operate.

Businesses use it, too. Banks need the information to provide loans; insurance companies need it to weed out risky drivers.

But Florida's public records law provides for situations where revealing personal information could endanger an individual. For that reason, state law provides several ways for people in real danger to protect themselves:

Anyone who has been the victim of sexual battery, aggravated child abuse, aggravated stalking, harassment, aggravated battery or domestic violence can request that their address and phone number be kept private by any agency that has that information in a public record. The victim must request the protection from each agency that holds such records. The protection lasts for five years and can be renewed.

Domestic violence victims can contact the state attorney general to be included in a program that hides their addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers in public records. The program allows the victim to file that information with the attorney general and then use the attorney general's address when filling out government forms that require such information.

Motorists can ask to have identifying information that appears in driver records shielded from public records law.

Anyone can ask that debit and credit card information that appears in clerk of court documents be redacted anytime someone asks to see that record. In 2006, this information will automatically be redacted in all cases, even if you haven't requested the anonymity.

-- Chris Davis