For all of you US homeowners, Redfin is now posting the name and mortgage info of homeowners on house listings. I find that in my region (Pacific Northwest), it seems to be county specific and primarily on homes sold in the last ~3 years that were previously listed on Redfin. It’ll be posted below tax history and before property details. This is obviously publicly available data, but I think I speak for pretty much all of us when I say that I don’t think its right for Redfin to so casually post this information. Below is a random house from my region that I saw on Redfin which had the ownership info listed.
All the more reason to place your home into a trust if you can. I didn’t do that when I bought my house but this definitely put a fire under my butt to get the ball rolling on doing that.
No different than data brokers re-posting public records.
It was probably a mistake to interpret “public records” as public to literally everyone on earth via the internet when these records were digitized, instead of public to people who physically visit some records office like it used to be. I suppose some will say that was just security through obscurity, but I still think limiting access to in person requests only should be the standard.
its a bit disingenuous to say they are leaking the information. Atleast in the US this information is a matter of public record. Redfin is basically just making it much easier to access that info.
Do I like it? NO.
I tend to agree with the sentiment, although I doubt this distinction (ie what public means in this context) was ever a factor. The idea behind a public record, is to give the public the ability inspect those records. I doubt the idea of it being “to public” was really ever considered.
Gotta love the implications of targeted harassment.
I always hated that argument about so-called “public records” anyways. Most scams and harassment that people face usually come from this data anyways. Just because it is already available does not mean it is not harmful.
I guess Redfin allows more randos online to pretend that they’re investigators/hackers.
I agree. I tend to think people use this idea that public records are the issue as a scapegoat in the same way that encryption is used for the issue of CSAM.
Public records are a good thing. Companies abusing the lack of data protection laws is not.
What do you mean? Are you asking what the benefits of having public records are? I would say primarily to promote transparency, accountability, and the efficient administration of governance. I think most people consider it a positive that things such as court records, professional licenses, business registrations etc are public record.
Public records have been around since the time of ancient civilizations, where as access to information on the level of the internet is relatively new, which is why I am skeptical this idea of a public record being “to public” has been considered much if at all.
