PUBLIC RECORDS
Public records refers to information that has been filed or recorded by public agencies, such as corporate and property records. Public records are created by the federal and local government, (vital records, immigration records, real estate records, driving records, criminal records, etc.) or by the individual (magazine subscriptions, voter registration, etc.). Most essential public records are maintained by the government and many are accessible to the public either free-of-charge or for an administrative fee. Availability is determined by federal, state, and local regulations.

With the advent of the Internet and the Information Age, access to public records in the U.S. to anyone who wishes to view them has dramatically increased. Third-parties such as the information broker industry make regular use of public records to compile profiles on millions of people that are easily accessible to anyone at the click of a mouse, and sometimes make a profit from the service of re-compiling and mining the data. Many private matters such as the full accounts of divorce cases, insurance lawsuits, voter registration (varying from state to state), and almost any other transactions people make with the government or do through a courthouse, is put into public records and made available for all eyes of society.

Access to public records in the US at the federal level is guided by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Each state has its own version of FOIA. For example, in Colorado there is the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) and in New Jersey the law is known as the Open Public Records Act (OPRA). There are many degrees of accessibility to public records between states, with some making it fairly easy to request and receive documents, and others with many exemptions and restricted categories of documents. One state that is fairly responsive to public records requests is New York, which utilizes the Committee on Open Government to assist citizens with their requests. A state that is fairly restrictive in how they respond to public records requests is Pennsylvania, where the law currently presumes that all documents are exempt from disclosure, unless they can be proven otherwise. (1)

(1) Source : Wikipedia

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