An Act To Help Prevent Identity Theft
Maine Legislature, Session 123, LD 2093
Committee: Judiciary
Sponsors: TARDY, EDMONDS, RICHARDSON
Amends: 33 MRSA §651-B

Legislative Document 
No. 2093 
H.P.1479 
House of Representati ves, December 27, 2007 
An Act To Help Prevent Identity Theft 
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 TARDY of Newport. 
Cosponsored by President EDMONDS of Cumberland and 
Representative: RICHARDSON of Warren. 
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: 
(I) 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 pre parer 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 
arising from a violation of this section. 
6. Application. This section does not apply to federal tax liens or other documents 
required by federal law to contain personally identifiable information that are filed or 
recorded in the registry office. 
Page I - 123LR2932(OI)-1 
SUMMARY 
This bill prohibits the pre parer of documents from including an individual's 
personally identifiable information in a document recorded in the registry of deeds.