What is Public Information?

The question of what information is private and what information is public is an issue that comes up a lot anymore.  Every time you sign a legal document, you have to sign a privacy policy.  Even though we sign so many privacy policies, there is still a lot of information that is public.  This article will give some examples of public vs. private and give you some tips to help make more of your information private.

Anyone who has or has ever had a mortgage has received a letter or phone call from someone who seems to know a lot about their mortgage.  Information like property address, home purchase price, loan amount, original lender and sometimes even your current interest rate.  These are all examples of public information.  Every county in the state of Colorado keeps detailed records of every real estate transaction.  These records are public so that anyone can look them up.  Not all the information is public; things like closing costs and usually interest rates are kept out of these records.  Two ways to access these records are through the county and/or their website, (Boulder County’s website is http://map.co.boulder.co.us/basemap/disclaimer.htm) or through a title company.

Another bit of information that is semi-public comes from the Credit Bureaus.  While things like your social security and account numbers are private information, things like when you apply for credit, or your general credit rating or types of credit are semi-public information.  This means that a company can request (for a fee) from the credit bureaus a list of all people who fit their specified criteria.  An example of this is those “You’re Pre-Approved” credit card offers you get in the mail.  Another even sneakier example of this is when you apply for a mortgage.  There are companies whose entire business model involves finding out when someone is applying for a mortgage, contact them and then try to undercut their competition by promising what ever they can to get your business.

If you would like to minimize the amount of junk mail offers and junk phone offers your receive, there is an option for you.  If you go to the website https://www.optoutprescreen.com/ you can choose to opt out of receiving offers for five years or permanently.  I have personally done this and it has reduced my junk mail substantially.

The last two things that I would like to mention are public records or Bankruptcy and Foreclosure.  These two items show up on a credit report in the section of public records.  This will also include the Elections and Demands statement that was filed with the county (Start of foreclosure proceedings).  So while the specifics of your credit history are private, if you declare bankruptcy or have a property that goes into foreclosure, these items will show up in public records.  These items can stay on your credit history for 7 to 10 years.

If you would like more information about anything that you have read in this news letter, please email Service@TheKunselmanTeam.com.