Hi Charles. Good to see you back on again. I am not sure it applies either. But you bring up an interesting point with your response.

It is very difficult to determine what is and is not public. In fact in many states this is constantly. For example, Florida citizens can have their social security numbers redacted from the official public records and many have. But thin title plants are not notified of this redaction or required as far as I know to make a duplicate redaction. So what was once entered into the public record is no longer public record but is still openly displayed online by the thin title plants and anyone else who has bought the public records in bulk.

Another example would be a police officer in Texas who has his tax appraisal record declared confidential. He must open it for a brief period of time to allow a title examiner and others he authorizes to view it but then it is closed again. So for a very brief moment of time it was public but the data collected remains confidential.

Yet another example from the court side are the cases that are sealed but only after the case has been imaged and sold in bulk for distribution worldwide over the internet. Only the official public record can be sealed and the hundreds or even thousands of copies are already distributed and can never be called back. If the thin title plant shipped the bulk data and images to foreign companies they have not only revealed confidential information to the American public but to those outside of American jurisdiction. 

As abstractors we should all remember that we deal with both confidential and public records and we can be held accountable for how we handle these records. If we rely on a thin title plant we may be assuming the information they provide is in the public domain but in fact there images may  be displaying information that is confidential under the act.

I'm not the first to ask these questions. Congressman Edward J. Markey asked similar juridictional questions of the FTC and FCC about privacy and security laws that fall under their authority. http://www.house.gov/markey/Issues/iss_privacy_ltr040223tel.pdf