Privacy fiasco: California suspends sales of personal details

Lots of angry Californians can make a difference...

The governor of California has stepped in to suspend the sale of birth and death records to online genealogy sites after receiving a plethora of complaints that the information could be used by fraudsters. The state's department of health is now under pressure to halt the sale of the details of 24 million Californians following a 45-day suspension of the transaction. Concerned residents of the Sunshine State were in uproar after discovering their details on sites including rootsweb.com and vitalsearch-ca.com. At the end of last week rootsweb.com reportedly removed the information. However, site owners have hit back by saying all of this information is available at the county recorder's office anyway. Until yesterday the health department was selling CD-Roms full of personal details for up to $900 each.