Editorial: ''Data: begged, borrowed, stolen''

Is this a joke?

We certainly did a double-take when we saw the Cleveland Plain Dealer editorializing that "Congress must give consumers the ability to protect their personal information, no matter who happens to possess it..."

It is difficult to reconcile this statement with the Plain Dealer's repeated abuse of the Media Access Loophole by publishing the private, personal information of consumers who obtain Ohio Concealed Handgun Licenses, just because they can.

"It's your personal information, but you don't control it" the Plain Dealer says. Well, according to the Ohio General Assembly, one's status as a CHL-holder is indeed personal information, but thanks to anti-gun entities like this newspaper, we definitely don't control it.

Following is are a few lines from the editorial, with only the words in [brackets] substituted:

"[CHL-holders] should be allowed to put freezes on their files, and to easily review and correct mistakes, as they can do with credit records. [News media and sheriffs] with sloppy security practices should face hefty fines.

Congress should approach the data collection industry with this goal in mind: [CHL-holders] should be far more aware of the information in their files than the enterprising thieves trying to prey on them.

A similarly surprising column can be found in the pages of the Akron Beacon Journal this week. Columnist Bob Dyer used his column this week to complain that public records requests were used by businesses to target him for solicitation after a traffic accident.