An Act To Protect Personally Identifying Information
Maine Legislature, Session 123, LD 2094
Committee: Judiciary
Sponsors: HAYES, EDMONDS
Amends: 33 MRSA §651-B

Legislative Document 
No. 2094 
H.P. 1480 
House of Representatives, December 27, 2007 
An Act To Protect Personally Identifying Information 
Approved for introduction by a majority of the Legislative Council pursuant to Joint Rule 
203. 
Reference to the Committee on Judiciary suggested and ordered printed. 
Presented by Representative HAYES of Buckfield. 
Cosponsored by President EDMONDS of Cumberland. 
Printed on recycled paper 
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MilLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 33 MRSA §651-B is enacted to read: 
§651-B. Privacy protection 
1. Definitions. As used in this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the 
following terms have the following meanings. 
A. "Personally identifiable information" means one or more of the following specific 
unique identifiers when combined with an individual's name: 
(1) Social security number; 
(2) Driver's license number or state identification card number; 
(3) Financial institution account number and credit, debit or charge card number; 
and 
(4) Date of birth. 
B. "Preparer' , means the person or entity that creates, drafts, edits, revises or last 
changes the documents that are recorded with the register of deeds. 
2. 
Inclusion of personally identifiable information. 
Notwithstanding any 
provision of law to the contrary, the preparer of a document may not include an 
individual's personally identifiable information in a document that is prepared and 
presented for recording in the registry office. This subsection does not apply to 
documents that were executed by an individual prior to the effective date of this 
subsection. 
3. Redaction on registry's website. If a document that includes an individual's 
personally identifiable information was recorded with the register of deeds prior to the 
effective date of this subsection and is available on the registry's publicly accessible 
website, the individual may request that the register of deeds redact that personally 
identifiable information from the website record. The register shall establish a procedure 
by which individuals make such requests at no fee to the requesting individual. The 
register shall comply with an individual's request to redact personally identifiable 
information. 
4. Liability of preparer. A preparer who violates subsection 2 is liable to the 
individual whose personally identifiable information appears in the recorded public 
document for damages of up to $500 for each act of recording. 
5. Liability of register of deeds. The register of deeds is not liable for any claims 
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arising from a violation of this section. 
6. Application. This section does not apply to state or federal tax liens, certified 
copies of death certificates or other documents required by law to contain personally 
identifiable information that are filed or recorded in the registry office. 
Page I - 123LR3301(Ol)-1 
SUMMARY 
This bill prohibits the preparer of documents from including an individual's 
personally identifiable information in a document recorded in the registry of deeds.