[boring_twenties]

What benefit is there to society or really, anyone to public records for private property ownership?

In my city, you can go to a website, type the first three characters of a name, and instantly get the full names and addresses of anyone who matches and owns a home.

To my mind, this is beyond absurd. This is a major safety risk with no benefits whatsoever. It's also the #1 reason I continue to rent.

[williamcotton]

How do you know who owns the land?

How do you prove you own the land and not the person who is trespassing?

How do you know who to tax?

How do you know who to fine if they dump chemicals in their backyard?

How do you know that everyone is being treated fairly under the law?

And why should the government have privileged information for all of these necessary records for private property?

[boring_twenties]

You have it exactly backwards. Why should anyone on the whole Internet have access to my physical address? I reject someone's pull request on github and now I have to worry they might show up at my door? Fuck everything about that.

[williamcotton]

What do I have backwards? How could any of those questions be answered without public records?

It's fine that you have found some negative scenarios, but any changes to this practice must address what would be lost!

[boring_twenties]

You have yet to give a single reason why it needs to be public

If you need to sue me for dumping chemicals, you can pretty well be bothered to go down to the clerk and show your own ID. It's not a problem. There is no need for my home address to be searchable by the whole Internet

[williamcotton]

There is a world of a difference between us looking after each other and them looking after us.

Put this in the context of the liberal democratic republic as it was born from monarchy: we must leave the “benevolent”, God-graced structure of government behind. In its stead is the common man governing himself, and with all the faults and warts, it is still more conducive to our expected freedoms.

There is not much more of an argument than I can offer other than the hundreds of years of actual practice.