Identity theft and genealogy is a subject that I have discussed before in my genealogy classes and on the road in lectures.
An article on preventing identity theft on Dick Eastman's blog is well worth the read, especially for these all knowing politicians who think they have all the answers, read the paragraph below.
"Identity theft is a major concern these days, as it should be. Many legislators seem to think that the problem can be solved by locking up all the birth, marriage, and death records, which, of course, has an impact on genealogists. The legislators apparently have never checked with the security experts who deal with identity theft every day, however. The security experts report that public domain records of birth, marriage, and death are rarely used by identity thieves. Instead, the thieves have easier methods."
You can read the rest of the article at
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/07/preventing-identity-theft-with-the-ssdi.html
