David:
It might appear to be laughable to you, but not to me- I have worked in this county for over thirty years now- have picked up every book and index that they have and when I search the land records now I do exactly the same thing- do you do anything less when you search titles? I do not wish to engage in a match of wits,but I do know the counties I work in and I provide accurate searches from the land records I use and they provide-I also do not wish to defend and entire state's security system and how they wish to administer or protect it- errors occur everyday and from every possible source- it seems as though humans are just not all that up to keeping things and data safe- there is not much I can do about each and every glitch.
The part about being "public" was from the the way the General assembly defined how access is to be provided- and the  basic arguement that the "Va watchdog" brought the matter to the public forefront-that was dealt with by the House Bill that defined how a subscription to the clerk's sites fill the requirments for being able to see and view the documents the clerk's have elected to provide. Here in Virginia they do not publish all the sensitive information as they do in Texas and other juristictions- no credit card numbers, SS numbers, divorce decrees, bank account numbers, traffic tickets, birth dates, etc-
I do know that I protect what I do and the information I provide to the clients I work for, each of them know that is the way I do business.
As far as the disclaimer that you found on the Fairfax County web site-that can be found on every county site- they never take responsibility or liabilty for anything that do-just their way of saying" its not their fault if something is wrong" Next time you are in your local clerk's office, ask them if they are liable for any error that they or anyone makes? Not going to get any positive response from that one, I am sure.
Instead of trying to bring down the system that is ever increasing in use- why not try to come up with ways to improve it, give us , the ones that work with them every day, some ideas as to how to make it a better system, more security more ideas, more positive input - anyone can criticize what is in use, it will take inovative people to improve and fix what needs to be fixed ( if you feel it does need fixing) I pass information on to the local clerks anytime I come up with something, we all should - they are there to provide services for us, the public.
I know and you publish your newsletter and I read it each time it comes out, it is to be commended. We need more input like that to help make the decisions for each county. Every day I read where more and more counties are "going on line" there are a number in Pennsylvania, and Texas, Ohio, Florida ,Maryland all online now- what do those that work there feel about how their systems work?
It seems that each clerk's office feels the pressure to provide their records to the public in a manner that they can do efficiently- the internet is the way they have chosen. Are there any alternatives that provide the same kind of service to the public? Aside from a trip to the respective court house- there isn't at this time.
I do believe we all want a secure system that works for each of us- it does become a little difficult to appease everyone and every one's thinking of how it should work.
Steve Meinecke
IA/Titlefax
Franklin, Tn