Today nearly 20 million documents are now posted for online access. Every one of them has been reviewed for PII, and any private information found has been redacted. Iowa Land Records is about to complete a project to add more than 230,000 documents from the counties of Pottawattamie and Dubuque to the online database.
However, resources to continue the redaction of PII from older documents are about to run out. In 2017 the Iowa Land Records governing board was able to reallocate some operating funds to the redaction reserve, but that option is more difficult now due to other budget constraints. As of July 1, 2019 only $38,292.00 remained in the redaction reserve, and most of those resources will be consumed by fall 2019.The Electronic Services System Coordinating Committee, the governing board for Iowa Land Records, will be exploring options for funding the redaction process and to continue efforts to make more records available online for the public and to the real estate industry. A new or expanded funding source and additional flexibility in spending authority from the Iowa General Assembly will be needed to address this issue.
Did You Know?
Did you know that since July 1, 2007 it has been against the law for a preparer of a document to present a document for recording if it includes personally identifiable information (PII)? (See Iowa Code 331.606A, Subsections 2 and 5)
Nevertheless, Iowa Land Records implements procedures to inspect every newly recorded document, and each year there are hundreds of documents submitted whit PII. Redaction is an ongoing process.