Currently the only way to access many vital documents, which are ostensibly public information and include birth, death, marriage and immigration records, is by using for-profit services such as Ancestry.com. This is a gross mishandling of these documents, and a clear violation of a citizen's rights to access public documents concerning themselves and their relatives. Under no circumstances should private citizens be required to pay a private corporation for public documents. Additionally, handing over these documents to largely unregulated private corporations threatens the security of people's private information, including birth dates, addresses and social security numbers. Control of the administration of and access to these documents should be a government function.
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