Public employees' home addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers are now shielded from public review under an amendment to Georgia's weakened open records law.

House Bill 437 was signed into law Monday by Gov. Sonny Perdue, according to the Web site for the Georgia legislature. It was derided by critics who argued it would make it especially difficult for citizens to reach government employees who might later become whistle-blowers on corruption or malfeasance. Such employees might be far less likely to share such information if they have to do so on government-owned property, critics argue.

Proponents of the bill indicated it was necessary to protect public employees from overzealous citizens. In one alleged case, a citizen requested the address of a caseworker from the Department of Family and Children Services and used that information to attack the caseworker's home. The Citizen has not been able to confirm such a situation actually occurring.

Previously, a privacy privilege for addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers was granted only to teachers and law enforcement officers.

Dan McLagan, Perdue's press secretary, said the bill was devised in part "because some Democractic and left-leaning union organizations" were using open records requests to get scores of addresses of state employees that were used in mailing campaigns. McLagan said he himself received "multiple" such mailings in the last campaign cycle.

"What this bill does is give public employees the same privacy protection afforded to private citizens," McLagan said. He noted that a criminal could acquire employees' social security numbers and other data en masse and use that to commit multiple counts of identity fraud.

McLagan said the bill does not apply to elected officials, which he said was confirmed by Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker.

Three of Fayette's House of Representatives delegation voted for the bill: Dan Lakly, Darryl Jordan and Virgil Fludd. Representatives John Yates and Roberta Abdul-Salaam declined to vote on the measure.

Senator Ronnie Chance voted for the bill while Senator Valencia Seay voted against it.