IPSWICH, Mass. -- Whether we like it or not, much of life in 2006 is happening on the Internet. The latest trend is the virtual city where towns have residents paying taxes, water bills and parking tickets from our computers.

But a Team 5 investigation discovered that towns may not be protecting your privacy.

NewsCenter 5's Kelley Tuthill reported that Crane's Beach in Ipswich has the kind of scenery that attracts people year round and has residents scrambling for passes as early as January. But this year's high-tech online application didn't sit well with Paul Rogers, a computer expert.

"All I had to do was simply put in my license plate information, suddenly, after doing that, I got all my personal, private information right there on the Web site. Name, address -- all that information," Rogers said.

No password was required.

The information could be dangerous in the hands of stalkers, hackers or an angry fellow driver. So Team 5 went to Ipswich Center with Rogers' laptop to test the Web site.

"Mr. Sherwood? Are you Mr. Sherwood?" Tuthill asked an Ipswich resident after entering his license plate into the Web site.

"Yes. How do you know?" Sherwood asked.

"Good question. There is a new thing to get your beach sticker in Ipswich. All we needed to do was type in your license plate and I know you are Mr. Sherwood and you live at (address)," Tuthill said. "Does it concern you at all that it is so easy for someone like me to pull that up and I know who you are and where you live?"

"Yes, it does," Sherwood said.

Tuthill approached another Ipswich resident.

"Are you Wendy Cutler?" Tuthill asked.

"Yes I am. How do you know?" Cutler asked.

"I took your license plate number, I typed it into the town of Ipswich Web site and it told me exactly where you live," Tuthill said.

"I don’t love it, but I don't think there anything you can do about it," Cutler said. "It did feel invasive that a complete stranger would know who I am walking down the street based on running my license plate."

"Are you John Ennis?" Tuthill asked another resident.

"Yes," Ennis said.

Tuthill explained how she obtained Ennis' information.

"I would just assume go to the town hall than have my privacy invaded," Ennis said.

In the old days, you had to go to the Town Hall to get a pass for Crane's Beach. The town was trying to make things easier.

"Obviously there is a potential security issue here. We do not want the names and the addresses of our residents to be available over our Web site. And so we are going to get it fixed," Ipswich Town Manager Robert Markel said.

Once Team 5 started asking questions, the town took the program offline and asked the bank that installed it to make changes. As communities begin to put all kinds of transactions like taxes and water bill online, beware, the convenience may come at a cost.

"Security issues exist and we need to be very careful," Markel said.

In Ipswich, you may find it easier to go to Town Hall before you hit the beach.