Private and public

Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky’s announcement last week that Maine motorists can act to make their driving records more private was welcome for people tired of exposing every detail of their lives simply because they are part of the electronic age. Signficantly absent from the federal legislation that allows for the greater privacy, however, was a recognition of why the proposal originally was drafted.

California preceded the federal government in enacting a law that limits access to driving records. In 1989, a 21-year-old television actress named Rebecca Schaeffer was stalked, shot and killed by an obsessed fan. The fan had tracked her down by hiring a private investigator, who went to the California Department of Motor Vehicles and found Ms. Schaeffer’s address. Shortly after that, California legislators passed a law restricting the release of DMV address information, except to the courts, law-enforcement agencies and insurance companies.

When Congress began to consider similar legislation, private investigators argued that the law would deny them access for legitimate uses. Congress went along with that idea, and, indeed, private investigators still will be able to get access to Maine driving records. No doubt many will use that access for sound reasons, but the original problem that begat the legislation remains essentially unsolved.

That exemption typifies the difficult balance at a time when people want nearly unlimited amounts of information instantly — but don’t want anyone else to have information about them. The Social Security Administration last spring ended a project to put records on the Internet when even modestly accomplished computer users discovered how simple it was to get access to just about anyone’s files. Lots of other information already is available — personal medical records, credit accounts and motor-vehicle information float about cyberspace, waiting to be read.

Government should put an individual’s right to privacy ahead of the general demand for information, but, as with Maine’s motor-vehicle protections, the exemptions could be more meaningful than the protections.