Alabama: records sold to highest bidder.

• Position: HEALTH RECORDS - Brief article

In Florence, Ala., $1,000 bought the contents of a delinquent storage unit belonging to a defunct medical imaging business. The contents included 20 boxes of personal medical records, complete with Social Security numbers, addresses, insurance information, and driver's license details.

When Digital Diagnostic Imaging closed its doors, a company official was tasked with securing customer records. However, the bill to store the records at Climate Guard Self Storage went unpaid and so its contents were auctioned.

Bobby Roberts bid $1,000, thinking he would win medical equipment. When he realized...