Accessing Utah's public records just got easier, thanks to Google.

Utah is one of four states participating with the Internet search company in a pilot project. Other states participating are Arizona, California and Virginia.

The project costs nothing but applies Google's search technology to the state's online records. The search engine pulls up not just information on the state's official Web site, utah.gov, but also searches through other government sites down to the county and local levels, including the Utah League of Cities and Towns and Mountainland Association of Governments.

The system was installed last week and Stephen Fletcher, the state's chief information officer, said it appears to be working well.

Anything that makes it easier for the public to obtain information from the government deserves praise -- as do the government officials and legislators who enabled the program. One of the principles of American government is that the people are the ultimate power, and as such they should have as much information about their government as possible.

While there are millions of government documents within the public domain, trying to find what one wants recalls needles and haystacks. In the past, one had to know exactly what agency possessed a record, for example. Not too many people are familiar with government organizational charts to know where to begin to look.

The Internet was supposed to make searching easier, but the previous search engine didn't present its results in a particularly easy-to-use manner.

Google's project allows for expanded searching, as well as arranging information in a way to make it easier to find by relevance. The system also has options to limit a search to just images or maps, allowing people to better separate the wheat from the chaff in a records search.

Unfortunately, any effort to use technology to make life easier is almost always assailed by a band of Luddites who denounce it as the end of civilization. This project is no exception, with privacy advocates claiming that it will make too much information available.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told the Associated Press that records containing people's Social Security numbers should not be made available online. A Social Security number makes it easier for an identity thief to better impersonate his victim and obtain credit under false pretenses.

Identity theft, while a problem, should not be used to prevent openness. It's a scare tactic that is virtually without merit.

Social Security numbers are not public records in Utah. The state's Government Records Access and Management Act already declares them off-limits and directs that they be redacted from documents that are otherwise public. There is no chance that someone using the state's Web site is going to run across a pool of Social Security numbers.

Second, there is no evidence that identity thieves use public records to get information on their victims. Government records that are publicly accessible don't contain the data an identity thief wants. For that, they must hack into secure databases.

Identity thieves have easier ways to get what they want -- stealing mail, sifting through trash or sending out "phishing" e-mails that lure people into giving up sensitive information.

Restricting online searches of public records won't stop identity thieves, but it will make it harder for people to get the documents to which they are legally entitled. That is not healthy in public affairs.

We hope Utahns will take advantage of this new system to become better informed about their government, and that Utah's experience will persuade other states to get on board with online record accessibility.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A8.