By: Will Garnett
Image source: https://medium.com/themap/how-to-work-with-government-open-data-77a8bee35ea1
Is your private information safe in the hands of the government? Only 12% of adult tech users polled in 2016 said that they were very confident in the ability of the federal government to protect their data, while 28% said they were not at all confident in that ability.[1] With recent news stories of data breaches, it is no surprise that people fear that their private information is unsafe.[2]
This month, Vice reported on state DMVs selling the private information of drivers to third parties.[3] This practice is permitted by law under the Drivers Privacy Protection Act, which allows personal information collected by the DMV to be disclosed for certain permissible uses.[4] These permissible uses range from employer verification of personal information to prevent fraud, to use by private investigative agencies.[5] The former is benign, and likely very useful to those seeking employment, eliminating tedious paperwork in the hiring process.[6] The latter could be a cause for concern, as private investigative agencies can be manipulated into aiding criminals, as was the case in Rebecca Scheffer’s murder.[7] A stalker may contact a private investigator to obtain DMV records containing the home address of his victim. While the benefits and dangers are known to state DMVs, they continue to sell DMV data to businesses and private investigators; Virginia DMV records show that it sold driver’s personal information to 109 investigative firms.[8]
Some state DMVs are collecting a significant amount of revenue from the sale of drivers’ data; Wisconsin made $17 million from the sale of drivers’ data in 2018 alone.[9] Access to a single record from the DMV has been sold for as little as $0.01.[10] Citizens of states that continue this practice have a choice to make. Will they allow the sale of their information to continue, even when it means depriving their agencies of significant revenue? Will it take another tragedy to cause new legislation to be written for this digital age? It remains to be seen whether there will be legal challenges to this newly uncovered practice on privacy grounds, but the truth is out.
[1] See Pew Research Center, Share of adults tech users in the United States who are confident in the ability of selected institutions to protect their data as of May 2016, Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/270062/legal-protection-of-us-internet-users-online-privacy (last visited September 08, 2019).
[2] See Chris Grundy, All Data Breaches in 2019 – An Alarming Timeline, Self Key (June 12, 2019), https://selfkey.org/data-breaches-in-2019.
[3] See Joseph Cox, DMVs Are Selling Your Data to Private Investigators, VICE (Sep. 6, 2019), https://tinyurl.com/y5ce5sx5.
[4] See 18 U.S.C. §2721 (2018).
[5] See 18 U.S.C §2721(b)(3-8) (2018).
[6] See Andrea Collatz, Using MVR Reports to Screen Potential Employees, TransUnion For Hires (Sep. 5, 2019) (explaining how employers can use DMV records to vet applicants), https://hires.shareable.com/blog/mvr-reports-screen-employees.
[7] See Natalie Flynn, The Still Terrifying Details of the Murder of Rebecca Schaeffer: A Star on the Rise and an Obsession Turned Deadly, E News (July 18, 2019) (detailing how a stalker found and killed a young actress by hiring a private investigator to obtain DMV records and the actress’ home address), https://tinyurl.com/y42wasoy.
[8] See Stephanie Pagones, Some state DMVs made millions selling drivers’ personal data for next to nothing, Fox Business (Sep. 9, 2019), https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/state-dmvs-drivers-personal-info.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.