I saw something recently that should stop every notary in their tracks:

A marriage certificate was posted online as “content.”

Let’s be clear—this isn’t bold marketing. It’s a serious failure of professional judgment.

Notaries sit in a position of trust. People bring us documents tied to life-changing events: marriages, divorces, home purchases, powers of attorney, adoptions, estates, business filings. They hand over paperwork that contains personal details they wouldn’t share publicly with friends—let alone the entire internet.

And that’s exactly why posting any client document online is never acceptable.

A Marriage Certificate Is Not “Just Paperwork”

A marriage certificate can contain information that puts real people at risk. Names, dates, locations, signatures, license numbers—details that can be exploited for fraud, harassment, or identity-based scams.

Even if some parts of these records may be obtainable elsewhere, that is not the point.

The moment you post it, you’ve:

• amplified private information to a wider audience,
• removed the client’s control over their personal data,
• and created a permanent digital footprint that can be copied, saved, reposted, and weaponized.

The harm isn’t hypothetical. Once something is online, you don’t get to decide where it goes next.

“But I Had Permission” Isn’t the Standard

Here’s the part we need to say out loud, especially within our profession:

Notaries should know better.

Even if someone says they don’t mind, even if they laugh it off, even if they think it’s “cool” for your page—our responsibility is not to chase consent for risky behavior. Our responsibility is to protect the public.

A notary is not an influencer. A notary is a public officer with an ethical duty to safeguard sensitive information. Our credibility comes from professionalism, discretion, and trustworthiness—not from posting someone’s paperwork for likes.

The standard isn’t “Can I?”
The standard is “Should I?”
And with client documents, the answer is always no.

What Professionals Do Instead

If you’re trying to educate, market, or build your brand, there are smart ways to do it without putting clients in danger:

• Use mock documents created for training purposes
• Share general educational content (process, tips, FAQs, do’s and don’ts)
• Post behind-the-scenes content that shows your professionalism (without paperwork)
• Use graphics and templates instead of real documents
• Blur isn’t enough—people can still identify details, and tech can sometimes reverse it

If you need an example to teach from, create a sample. If you want to show experience, speak about the type of work—not the client’s record.

This Impacts All of Us

When one notary posts private documents publicly, it doesn’t just reflect on them. It chips away at trust in the profession as a whole.

Clients already worry about scams. They worry about where their information goes. They worry whether a notary is legitimate.

Our job is to reassure them through our actions.

That means we treat every document like it matters—because it does.

The Bottom Line

Posting a marriage certificate online is not “witty.”
It’s not “bold.”
It’s not “content.”

It’s careless.

Notaries must hold themselves to a higher standard—especially when we have access to sensitive personal records. Professionalism isn’t just how we complete the certificate. It’s how we protect the people behind it.

Let’s raise the standard. Let’s be the safeguard the public expects us to be.