State Agencies Selling Personal Data

[patric]

As the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety begins to build databases if the habits of Oklahoma drivers (by scanning license tags and cataloging their location), there are concerns over the privacy of that collected data.

Well, fear not, and rest assured that the DPS will sell that information to anyone with cash in hand:


State profits from residents' data

The state of Oklahoma makes tens of millions of dollars selling personal information about people that some lawmakers and labor organizations want kept secret for government employees, The Oklahoman and Tulsa World have learned.

At least $65 million has been made in the past five years from the sale of millions of motor vehicle records that include birth dates and other personal information of all state drivers, Department of Public Safety records show.

Motor vehicle records include drivers' names, birth dates, driver's license numbers and recent driving histories. Some of that information is not available under the state Open Records Act.
Yet motor vehicle records can be bought online or in person.

Top clients are clearing- houses that sell the information to insurance companies and corporations, Poe said.

"We don't go out and run a big background check on somebody that walks in and tries to get an MVR," Poe said.

State tag agents also sell motor vehicle records. Money made from those sales flows through the state Tax Commission and wasn't included in the revenue records provided by the Department of Public Safety, Poe said.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20100404_11_A1_Thesta994848


...now EVERYONE will know next time you pop into Priscilla's Lingerie for your party favors.... 

[Hoss]

As the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety begins to build databases if the habits of Oklahoma drivers (by scanning license tags and cataloging their location), there are concerns over the privacy of that collected data.

Well, fear not, and rest assured that the DPS will sell that information to anyone with cash in hand:


State profits from residents' data

The state of Oklahoma makes tens of millions of dollars selling personal information about people that some lawmakers and labor organizations want kept secret for government employees, The Oklahoman and Tulsa World have learned.

At least $65 million has been made in the past five years from the sale of millions of motor vehicle records that include birth dates and other personal information of all state drivers, Department of Public Safety records show.

Motor vehicle records include drivers' names, birth dates, driver's license numbers and recent driving histories. Some of that information is not available under the state Open Records Act.
Yet motor vehicle records can be bought online or in person.

Top clients are clearing- houses that sell the information to insurance companies and corporations, Poe said.

"We don't go out and run a big background check on somebody that walks in and tries to get an MVR," Poe said.

State tag agents also sell motor vehicle records. Money made from those sales flows through the state Tax Commission and wasn't included in the revenue records provided by the Department of Public Safety, Poe said.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20100404_11_A1_Thesta994848


...now EVERYONE will know next time you pop into Priscilla's Lingerie for your party favors.... 

I sort of work in this industry, or one related to it.  Scott Grizzle knows what company I work for.

I wish Oklahoma would go to what many other states are doing; forcing consumers to sign a release stating they have a 'permissible purpose' to use the MVR.  As it stands now, if you purchase an MVR through my company, you do have to state your company/vendor name and why you are ordering it.

Good thing about Oklahoma MVRs is that they do not release address information.  Alot of other states are this way as well  I'm talking about the public record, not the one that law enforcement gets, which has everything.  They're tied in to the state to get that information.

Anyone remember an actress getting murdered in California several years ago (maybe early/mid nineties)?  I want to say it was Dominique Dunne that sparked this, but I'm sure it was in California if it wasn't her.  I can't find the specific reference, but it essentially boiled down to someone stalking this actress after finding out her address by ordering a motor vehicle record of her.

Now, several states make you sign affidavits stating you have a permissible purpose to obtain these records.  Every year (these are renewable, by the way) I have to sign no less than 16 affidavits where I work.

[patric]

Good thing about Oklahoma MVRs is that they do not release address information

Apparently they do.
Whenever my birthday rolls around I get a bunch of junk mail that is addressed to me with the precise misspelling that only appears on my drivers license.  Sort of a smoking gun as to the source.

[Hoss]

Apparently they do.
Whenever my birthday rolls around I get a bunch of junk mail that is addressed to me with the precise misspelling that only appears on my drivers license.  Sort of a smoking gun as to the source.

You're talking about an address misspelling?  You're not making yourself clear here.  What's misspelled?

[patric]

You're talking about an address misspelling?  You're not making yourself clear here.  What's misspelled?

The name is distinctively misspelled on the drivers license.  When a flurry of junk mail arrives with the identical error, it points to DPS as the source.

[Hoss]

The name is distinctively misspelled on the drivers license.  When a flurry of junk mail arrives with the identical error, it points to DPS as the source.

I can pretty much guarantee you though, unless you're law enforcement, that address is NOT on any MVR that the public has access to.

[TheTed]

Anyone remember an actress getting murdered in California several years ago (maybe early/mid nineties)?  I want to say it was Dominique Dunne that sparked this, but I'm sure it was in California if it wasn't her.  I can't find the specific reference, but it essentially boiled down to someone stalking this actress after finding out her address by ordering a motor vehicle record of her.

Rebecca Schaeffer?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Schaeffer

[Hoss]

Rebecca Schaeffer?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Schaeffer

That would be her.  Thanks!

[custosnox]

I can pretty much guarantee you though, unless you're law enforcement, that address is NOT on any MVR that the public has access to.

When I was bounty hunting I could walk into any tag agency, give them a tag number, and walk out with the full information on the person who the vehicle was registered to, including address.  This was a great starting point for me back then.  I don't know about the MVR on an individual though, never bothered trying to pull this.  Of course, keep in mind that Bounty Hunters don't have any kind of credintials in this state.

[patric]

I can pretty much guarantee you though, unless you're law enforcement, that address is NOT on any MVR that the public has access to.

The public might not have access, but a corporation with the right lobbyist and a pile of cash?
Remember, the money changing hands here is in the tens of millions...

[Hoss]

The public might not have access, but a corporation with the right lobbyist and a pile of cash?
Remember, the money changing hands here is in the tens of millions...

Wow, talk about black helicopters.

Prove it.  My final thoughts on the matter.  Until it's proved that they disseminate address information, I'm going to go on the assumption that corporations (who are the ones by the way such as JB Hunt, Swift, Schneider and such) get the same MVRs I remember them getting for seven years I've worked at this company.  This did not include addresses (Oklahoma; some states provide them which is dangerous IMO).

[Conan71]

I'm not sensing something overly nefarious here.  I would imagine the bulk of records are to auto insurance companies, not junk mail purveyors.  In the process of re-writing my auto and home-owner's insurance last week, my agent said the insurer was paying about $20 per record, I have three drivers on my auto policy, so I would assume the individual MVR requests from insurance companies adds up.

If you can prove they are selling our records for strictly profit-driven motives, prove it with something other than some junk mail addressed to you.  If it's a mis-spelling of your first name by adding a letter or a dropping of a letter in your last name which you think is the dead giveaway of what list your annual junk mail comes from those might be pretty common data entry errors.

I didn't read anything in your story citation which clearly says the state is selling your records to junk mailers.  Any junk mail I get seems to come from courthouse land records.  I got a flurry of insurance solicitations within the last month.  Why would that be?  Perhaps because my deed and mortgage were filed a year ago.  Within 4-6 weeks of closing on my house, I was already getting "mortgage protection" life insurance solicitations.  The only extra mail I get around my birthday are birthday cards.

[patric]

I didn't read anything in your story citation which clearly says the state is selling your records to junk mailers.  Any junk mail I get seems to come from courthouse land records.  I got a flurry of insurance solicitations within the last month.  Why would that be?  Perhaps because my deed and mortgage were filed a year ago.  Within 4-6 weeks of closing on my house, I was already getting "mortgage protection" life insurance solicitations.  The only extra mail I get around my birthday are birthday cards.

I get solicitations from restaurants around my birthday, that specifically mention my birthday, and have the distinctive error to both my first and middle name (as it appears on my DL).
The Whirled story stated that "Top clients are clearing-houses that sell the information to insurance companies and corporations" so from there it is likely repackaged and resold.  The junk may come from a boiler-room but the DPS is in the chain.

[patric]

...Watts suspected her private driver's license information was being accessed by fellow officers, so she made a public records request with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. It turned out she was right: over a three-month period, at least 88 law enforcement officers from 25 different agencies accessed Watts' driver's license information more than 200 times, according to her lawyer.
Watts is suing those police agencies and the individual officers under the federal Driver Privacy Protection Act, a 1994 law that provides for a penalty of $2,500 for each violation if the information was improperly accessed.

The legal clash over Watts' lawsuit comes as some police agencies are seeking changes in the driver's license law itself. Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Agencies, said law enforcement officials are concerned that lawyers are using the law to target individual officers who access the information.
"There is value in drivers' information and a market for it," the Justice Department lawyers said. "What the defendants fail to recognize is that there is value in drivers' information whether or not it is actually sold."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/fla-trooper-stopped-sues-harassment-article-1.1609641