Now this is silly.

My neighbor's "marketing" firm is listed--twice. But, the Quik-E-Mart and the bar that are only a block away are not listed.

No data is better than bad data.

OK

Besides keeping under-busy CoP IT people busy like TorridJoe?

I agree with your concerns about privacy. I think this information is being provided for developers of semantic web applications. I find the idea disturbing, at best.

Much like property ownership info, this is completely public information and was there for the asking before it was on Portland Maps. This just makes it much more convenient for the average person to access the data. Personally, I am all for public records being open and accessible. I am having a hard time thinking of a reason that someone might not want their business information open to the public and would think that if they did not want it associated with their home they could easily registered it with a PO Box.

...a famous address just up the street from us a ways

Wonder if the Stenmeister has a business license for all the rental properties he's accumulated around Portland?

Oh, wait a minute, that would likely be a Bend address. He's under the radar.

I am having a hard time thinking of a reason that someone might not want their business information open to the public...

I am a Trustee for my 93-year old Aunt's Living Trust, and she's living in an assisted living facility outside of Oregon. Portland Maaps doesn't list my address only because the Trust is incorporated in the state she resides, a matter I thought over beforehand. This information is, I suppose, publically accessible there, and certainly the banks and financial institutions I deal with need to confirm that I have Trustee authority.

But, had I made the wrong decision, this information would be accessible here. It's already bad enough that the Post Office sells the Trust's address, and I'm regularly getting snail mail spam from the likes of Skyline Memorial Gradens to sell her pre-arranged funerals.

Is that reason enough for you?

This just makes it much more convenient for the average person to access the data.

Why would the "average" person need this information?

Isn’t transparency wonderful?

This is "public" information and needs to be accessible to the public.

I think the City of Portland is doing the right thing in regards to this!

Having looked up my home address to find out whether my business is listed, I find I am carrying on a business in the category "Golf courses and country clubs".

That's way cool but way off what I actually do which is much more mundane and far less profitable and grand. I feel torn about seeking a correction !!!

The City of Portland's official PortlandMaps website caused quite a stir a while back when it started listing the names and addresses of any given property's owners.

I used this website last year to get the name and address of the owner of a neighboring rental property. My wife had gone to ask the occupants not to sit in the backyard in the middle of summer and blast out amplified riffs on their guitars. These upstanding neighbors told my wife to f*ck off. I notified the property owner, who had a little chat with the ne'er-do-wells.

I used this website last year to get the name and address of the owner of a neighboring rental property. My wife had gone to ask the occupants not to sit in the backyard in the middle of summer and blast out amplified riffs on their guitars. These upstanding neighbors told my wife to f*ck off. I notified the property owner, who had a little chat with the ne'er-do-wells.

likewise, those annoying neighbors can now easily get your name and other information about *you*.

which opens an easy door to finding other information about you. yes, just knowing your full name and home address can be at least annoying--they can subscribe you to a host of things, for starters--but is key to finding out much, much more.

It's not so much that privacy is dead, as that - with respect to public information - it always has been an illusion.

ecohuman: Apropos my story about blowing the whistle on the obnoxious neighbors, when I had a difficult situation some years ago with another rental property on my block--drunken parties spilling out into the street, even after direct complaints and a call to the police--it took a rather substantial, prolonged effort to track down any information about either the owner (who, it turns out, didn't even live in the US) or the property management company. The Portland Maps website is not publishing anything not in the public record already. The actual argument here is not about what is a public record, but rather how easy those records should be to access.

john rettig - I am a Trustee for my 93-year old Aunt's Living Trust...

Being the trustee of a Living Trust does not require you to obtain a business license, so you would not be on here for any reason.

It's not so much that privacy is dead, as that - with respect to public information - it always has been an illusion.

Exactly! Or as on internet entrepreneur that I knew back in the late 90's used to say, "Information wants to be free."

You sound like kind of a killjoy fred.

The Portland Maps website is not publishing anything not in the public record already.

It's not so much that privacy is dead, as that - with respect to public information - it always has been an illusion.

I'm hearing a fundamental misunderstanding of information security. nearly all information security--computer and otherwise--is obfuscation. All that "cryptography" and "password protection" is nothing more than that. This doesn't mean that information access is secret--it only means that it's different levels of difficult to get to.

Obfuscation is how most computer security works. Hackers can eventually break into (or find out) anything--the question is, do they want to spend the time to do it?

In other words, no, privacy is *not* an illusion. that "public information" that people yawningly point out as already existing was harder to access--"obfuscated" until the website came along. There was a *reason* for the information being at City Hall rather than the laundromat bulletin board.

All of this, you'll notice, is devoid of much though about the consequences of publishing anything and everything they can get their hands on. Why is it, I wonder, that "because the law says I can" has become all the justification anybody needs for their actions?

There are degrees of accessibility, even for "public" information. Until now, it would be quite difficult to assemble this kind of data. Now anyone with a computer can do it.

Remember when the kid put the whole Oregon DMV database on line? Now the information's secret.

The main point is, there are serious privacy implications here that ought to be publicly discussed before the data is released in this manner. But with PortlandMaps (whichever bureaucratic enclave that is), it's publish first, defend later.

There are degrees of accessibility, even for "public" information. Until now, it would be quite difficult to assemble this kind of data. Now anyone with a computer can do it.

Why should an attorney with a Westlaw account have better access to public records than me? Because they are paying for it? Because we can trust that they will only use their power for Good? Hah!

I still don't understand what is so personal about business licenses. It isn't like the escorts on CraigsList are registering with the city and don't want their neighbors to know.

Personally, I appreciated the thought that the DMV records were going to be online - not that I ever looked any up. Would have been nice to see who got "assman" for their custom plate.

In addition to the privacy concern, a lot of these listings are out of date. I noticed one address that shows a person who has not been there for more than 10 years.

BTW, an attorney with a Westlaw or Lexis account would not have access to City of Portland business listings. Additionally, please note that most meth heads and other burglars don't have Westlaw or Lexis.

....with PortlandMaps (whichever bureaucratic enclave that is), it's publish first, defend later.

They did seem to get the message from neighboring communities that put information on the Metro database, though. Look for businesses close to an address outside of Portland, and you'll get the message

We're sorry, but Business information is currently only available for the City of Portland.

Since they got into trouble with listings outside of Portland the first time you called them on this (for residential property ownership listings), I would presume there at least was some discussion on the subject of privacy beforehand.

And CoP lost.

Information about business licenses from other cities isn't on Portland maps because the city isn't the custodian of those records. Because of that, CoP can't make a decision to publish the data on the web without authorization from the agency that actually maintains the records (Gresham or whatnot).

Folks,

Why are you protesters so paranoid? Do you tell the U.S. Postal Service not to know your address?

Thousands of individuals and businesses are listed with addresses in the telephone book and Yellow Pages. Eeek!

If you don't want to be listed, don't list yourself.

Duh,

Judson Randall