[NR] Re: Facts

Marc Carlson marc-carlson at utulsa.edu
Wed May 23 11:06:18 PDT 2001


At 12:35 PM 5/23/01 -0500, I wrote:
>>At 10:23 AM 5/23/01 -0500, Bear wrote:
>>>If "background checks" were illegal, then a lot of private investigators
>>>would be out of business...
>>Not to mention Genealogists... :)

Come to think of it, all those companies that keep track of what you buy, so they can "better
predict" what you might want in the future might have problems...

I think there may be a distinction between looking into someone's Criminal record and just looking
into someone's background.  Now, since the ODC has made it possible to, with no passwords, or
special licensing, or whatnot, to check on some past "public offender" records, this suggests that
*in Oklahoma* it's not illegal.   Now, in Texas, the Texas Department of Public Safety web page
also allows you to look up past convictions - but only of you have a user name and password
(unless you are looking up sex offenders, in which case you can just dive in and go). [I know this
because I just checked both states pages].

This is, I believe, because, if you have committed a crime, it's part of the *public record*, but that's
an opinion.  Perhaps if we are going to be declaring things to be "illegal" or not, we wait until
we contact the ODC and ask why the database is so easy to access.  If it's supposed to be
"illegal" (in Oklahoma), then maybe they've made an error in their security.

Before we start flinging around "facts" maybe we could do some checking first?  And not forget that
we are dealing with two different states.

Marc/Diarmaid




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