Those of us who are mediators know how important confidentiality is to the mediation process, and we endeavor always to honor the privacy of parties.

Privacy is important of course in other contexts, especially when identity theft and security breaches occur so frequently these days (case in point: CitiFinancial’s announcement today that it somehow lost the personal financial data of some 3.9 million customers).

Out of the Box Lawyering, a law blog, recently reported that personal information on virtually anyone in the U.S., including date of birth, address, and home telephone numbers, is available on ZabaSearch, a new search engine. Just type in your name, select the state you reside in, and see what happens. You may be unpleasantly surprised.

This is troubling news for anyone who doesn’t want the whole world to have access to what many of us view as private information (especially anyone who’s been fibbing about their age). For details on how to remove yourself from the ZabaSearch database, visit Snopes.com (yes, the web site devoted to debunking urban legends).

While admittedly this post is most definitely off-topic (despite my good-faith attempt in the beginning to link this to confidentiality in mediation), I figured this was serious enough stuff to warrant sharing with my readers who may not want their personal information spread all across the Internet for everyone to see. Please go ahead and pass this on.

Over the weekend Wisconsin’s Beloit Daily News reported that Rock County Mediation and Family Court Services in Janesville, Wisconsin, has launched a web site for parents. The web site is designed to help parents who live apart through separation, divorce, or other reasons to work together as co-parents and take full advantage of mediation services available in the County.

There is plenty of useful information and materials available here on this web site for parents and for family mediators, even for those who are not residents of Rock County or Wisconsin. Links include:

The Mediation Process, providing information which demystifies the mediation process for parents.

Positive Co-Parenting, with downloadable materials in PDF format on topics ranging from “How Parents Can Cooperate,” “Fair Arguing Rules”, and “Designing a Parenting Plan”.

Suggested Reading, with book recommendations for adults, children, and stepfamilies.

There’s even a sample memorandum of agreement for parenting so parents can get a sense of what a co-parenting agreement might look like and provide ideas for developing their own.

As anyone knows who has had to transact business of any kind with state or county agencies, such offices are typically open weekdays only during normal business hours. However, this web site ensures that support and information remains available 24/7 to parents and children. This online resource could certainly serve as a useful model for any community or county-run mediation program in the process of designing its own family-friendly web site.