The California DMV Is Making $50 Million a Year Selling Drivers' Personal Info (vice.com) 62
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: The California Department of Motor Vehicles is generating revenue of $50,000,000 a year through selling drivers' personal information, according to a DMV document obtained by Motherboard. DMVs across the country are selling data that drivers are required to provide to the organization in order to obtain a license. This information includes names, physical addresses, and car registration information. California's sales come from a state which generally scrutinizes privacy to a higher degree than the rest of the country.
In a public record acts request, Motherboard asked the California DMV for the total dollar amounts paid by commercial requesters of data for the past six years. The responsive document shows the total revenue in financial year 2013/14 as $41,562,735, before steadily climbing to $52,048,236 in the financial year 2017/18. The document doesn't name the commercial requesters, but some specific companies appeared frequently in Motherboard's earlier investigation that looked at DMVs across the country. They included data broker LexisNexis and consumer credit reporting agency Experian. Motherboard also found DMVs sold information to private investigators, including those who are hired to find out if a spouse is cheating. It is unclear if the California DMV has recently sold data to these sorts of entities. In an email to Motherboard, the California DMV said that requesters may also include insurance companies, vehicle manufacturers, and prospective employers. Marty Greenstein, public information officer at the California DMV, said that its sale furthers objectives related to highway and public safety, "including availability of insurance, risk assessment, vehicle safety recalls, traffic studies, emissions research, background checks, and for pre- and existing employment purposes."
"The DMV takes its obligation to protect personal information very seriously. Information is only released pursuant to legislative direction, and the DMV continues to review its release practices to ensure information is only released to authorized persons/entities and only for authorized purposes. The DMV also audits requesters to ensure proper audit logs are maintained and that employees are trained in the protection of DMV information and anyone having access to this information sign a security document," Greenstein wrote.
In a public record acts request, Motherboard asked the California DMV for the total dollar amounts paid by commercial requesters of data for the past six years. The responsive document shows the total revenue in financial year 2013/14 as $41,562,735, before steadily climbing to $52,048,236 in the financial year 2017/18. The document doesn't name the commercial requesters, but some specific companies appeared frequently in Motherboard's earlier investigation that looked at DMVs across the country. They included data broker LexisNexis and consumer credit reporting agency Experian. Motherboard also found DMVs sold information to private investigators, including those who are hired to find out if a spouse is cheating. It is unclear if the California DMV has recently sold data to these sorts of entities. In an email to Motherboard, the California DMV said that requesters may also include insurance companies, vehicle manufacturers, and prospective employers. Marty Greenstein, public information officer at the California DMV, said that its sale furthers objectives related to highway and public safety, "including availability of insurance, risk assessment, vehicle safety recalls, traffic studies, emissions research, background checks, and for pre- and existing employment purposes."
"The DMV takes its obligation to protect personal information very seriously. Information is only released pursuant to legislative direction, and the DMV continues to review its release practices to ensure information is only released to authorized persons/entities and only for authorized purposes. The DMV also audits requesters to ensure proper audit logs are maintained and that employees are trained in the protection of DMV information and anyone having access to this information sign a security document," Greenstein wrote.
Isn't this illegal? (Score:2)
I thought CA made it illegal to sell this information after the Rebecca Schaeffer murder?
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Have to trust fake, stolen, shared, created ID presented by criminals, illegal migrants?
Thats why background checks are done. So the person "working" has the qualification needed to be trusted with a car, van, truck, suv
Trusted with the contents, any passengers.
Yes or no would do. Don't need details (Score:4, Insightful)
If you don't trust yourself to look at the license, one could query the DMV asking "is this DL number valid with this name?" Thr DMV would reply yes or no. There is no need foe the DMV to sell information in order to verify an ID.
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A lot of information goes into a background checks
Thats why its a background check not just a license check.
Slowly the criminals and illegal migrants using shared, stolen, fake, created ID get detected.
Actually feel more than look. (Real ID Act) (Score:2)
> how is a "look" going to help in any way?
First, actually looking at the ID fulfills your legal obligation, which is a significant help right there. You did the due diligence required.
To go beyond that, for older licenses feel it and compare to a legitimate document. Feel for raised edges, glue lines or bumpy surfaces by the photo or birth date. Uneven surfaces often indicate tampering. Feel for cut-out or pasted information. Ceck the thickness / stiffness of the ID. It may have been re-laminated aft
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A background check will see if more of the fake, shared, created, stolen data sets exist, are in use, are fiction... dont exist...
A "look" at ID is not a background check.
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> A "look" at ID is not a background check.
And knowing what kind of car the owner of the license has *is* a background check?
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Well, if they aren't by compliant by I believe Oct 2020, then NO people from CA will be able to fly, unless they all get passports.
Their non-RealID drivers licenses won't be accepted at airports in the US any longer.
I think the RealID thing sucks and wish more states had fought it, but that's where it stands.
Re:Isn't this illegal? (Score:5, Funny)
I thought CA made it illegal to sell this information after the Rebecca Schaeffer murder?
They made it illegal to sell it to random jerkoffs. Now they only sell it to specific jerkoffs.
Re:Isn't this illegal? (Score:4, Interesting)
so wrong (Score:4)
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They might have a fake ID, shared ID, stolen ID, be an illegal migrant, a criminal.
That data set may not match what that gov has.
The fake information can be detected when listed by the gov vs what the person attempted to show as their ID for work.
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They included data broker LexisNexis and consumer credit reporting agency Experian. Motherboard also found DMVs sold information to private investigators, including those who are hired to find out if a spouse is cheating.
I should not be just a Lexis/Nexis account away from getting your personal info. Stalkers can get credit cards too, you know.
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Or, you know, there could be limitations on who can get the data and what data they get. But that's just crazy-talk.
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The "who" listed so far is "including availability of insurance, risk assessment, vehicle safety recalls, traffic studies, emissions research, background checks, and for pre- and existing employment purposes"
Academics who are trusted to work with huge data sets... insurance and
Vehicle safety recalls - again a good thing.
Emissions research - great to be seen doing very gree
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The expected background details of an illegal migrant may not exist outside the sanctuary state.
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I don't care what you're supposedly using the money for, don't "sell" personal data.
Would you prefer they spend the time, effort, and manpower to give it away for free?
I mean, I hear you Californians hardly pay any taxes these days, so what's one more...
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$2 per driver - the price of privacy (Score:5, Informative)
California has 26 million licensed drivers, so $52M is $2 per driver. Two bucks is the price the State of California puts on the privacy of citizens.
It's called a MVR (Score:4, Informative)
Or Motor Vehicles Report. There used to be two kinds of MVR, one that only shows what's on your record now and another kind which shows your complete history, but they've recently done away with the low-information version. It costs five bucks to get one, whether it's yours or someone else's. You have to provide identifying information to get one, and if it's not yours you're required to provide a reason why you should be able to get it. Prospective and current employers can get them for [prospective] employees who [will] operate a vehicle in the course of their employment, although they often require you to go in and get your own so they don't have to pay for it.
It should be illegal to charge you more than actual costs to sell you data about yourself. Like, a dollar, tops. They laser print it, it's not like they have to pay a calligrapher.
Tax payers, freedom to information (Score:1)
Information from the gov is often free, at a low cost to look over per request by a citizen.
Can look at one document? Why not pay to look at all of them?
What is so evil about that list?
Re "insurance, risk assessment, vehicle safety recalls, traffic studies, emissions research, background checks, and for pre- and existing employment purposes"
A citizen has insurance? Whats wrong with getting the gov side of that persons ID?
Risk assessment? Asking the g
Intentional or side leak? (Score:1)
Some of the stated uses sound legitimate. But giving it to private investigators doesn't, or at least "ending up" at private investigators through 3rd parties doesn't. As usual, the devil's in the details about how what info gets to who.
Data is so easy to copy and share these days that it's hard to keep a lid on it all.
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In addition, the guy who murdered Rebecca Schaefer used a PI to obtain her address from the DMV.
California violates privacy (Score:2)
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I found the solution is quite simple. Start feeding all this data collection with fake data. We're all used to putting our information as accurately as possible, start doing the inverse. Spelling mistake there, address number mistake here, etc. Just keep track of it with your own excel, or keepass, whatever.
I've noticed there is no one worthwhile to go through all this massive data and correct the mistakes and it stays there forever. It completely messes with their tracking.
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We're all used to putting our information as accurately as possible, start doing the inverse [...] I've noticed there is no one worthwhile to go through all this massive data and correct the mistakes and it stays there forever.
The DMV tends to make mistakes all the time, for example they wanted to charge us some massive fee to register a bus we bought for $5k because (AFAICT) someone at the DMV hit the 0 key one too many times, and recorded the sale price as $50k. They don't catch those errors, but the errors YOU make are flagged by the system. And if they get your address wrong, you don't get your ID, or your title, etc.
Re:California violates privacy (Score:4, Funny)
Law enforcement tends to frown on fake information on your driver license.
Many years ago, a friend told me that he had got a credit card in the name of (I think) "Abraham Lincoln" (easy to do if you request an additional cardholder for your credit card account) and used this in place of the credit card in his own name for the purpose of creating fake data.
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I had to do a legal name change some years ago solely for the DMV, as it would not renew my driver's license unless the name on it matched my Social Security card name. The SSA required no such thing to accept the name I'd been using for years.
The ID from the DMV is an authoritative legal document, used for proof of identity. As such, the name on the ID matches your legal name. I know a guy who changed his legal name to Rodent, one word. It's on his ID.
Knowing these things, I will not be getting a California Real ID, but a passport instead.
The passport will have your legally registered name on it, too.
Evident by the extended warranty offers mailed out (Score:2)
As a purchaser of primarily used vehicles, we get a mailed solicitation for an extended warranty immediately after every purchase, as well as a noticeable uptick in solicitations with a gecko on the envelope.
The information is probably out there anyway from the latest governmental data privacy snafu. Is it more ethical to purchase the information directly from the States, rather than dabble around in Bitcoin on the dark web locating the newest data breach?
funny... (Score:1)
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I do agree that it would be nice if CA would take the same bold stance with vendors flashing cash that it quite justifiably takes with political snipe hunts, but I don't know that my state is any better.
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The state (Score:2)
Criminals. The state blocks or hinders private companies that selling anonymized data after obtaining permission from users so they can do stuff like this. Sickos. Thats why we need tentacle-free weaker governments.
California is grasping at straws for more funds (Score:4, Informative)
$1T in unfunded pension liabilities. [ocregister.com]
.
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They should look at the other states too. Ohio at least has to balance it's budget, but the working class pays taxes at twice the rate as the rich now. And I wouldn't be shocked to hear that they make money from the DMV list either.
We are shocked, shocked! (Score:2)
It scrutinizes private corporations to a higher degree, because they are a centuries-old boogieman for politicians to ride to power on.
Government itself is voratious for money to lavish on voters.
There is nothing confusing about this if you use the old tried and true rule of thumb follow the money (and power, which is for money)
I know you are all shocked! Shocked!
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What's the worry? (Score:2)
I thought it was highly troubling for private corporations (whom you can voluntarily associate with) to sell your data for financial gain, and that the Government (Federal, State, or local) as the answer to all and would never hurt us, even if they can compel you to provide private data via their own ability to write and enforce laws. So how can this be bad?
Do I really need the /sarc tag?
Well... (Score:2)
As a member of the collective (Score:2)
I'd like to ask that the CA DMV increase their price in order to bring greater revenue to the state. Let's say increase it by 100x every year.
lol reality of CA liberals being corrupt (Score:1)
i smell a class action (Score:2)
Data (Score:1)
Typical lies (Score:2)
> "The DMV takes its obligation to protect personal information very seriously."
Why do they bother even starting with such meaningless words?
It's the same as when I call a business and they say "your call is very important to us" and "sorry for the inconvenience". Those phrases have lost all authenticity.
Public records? (Score:2)
The address of my property and my name are public record because I own a house.
This seems like something of the same case, at least in the 'old days' it would have fit pretty well.
You own a car, that ownership , your name, and address needed to contact you if your car is found or involved in an accident and runs away is reasonably considered 'public' information.
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As a side thought. This doesn't include SSN so it doesn't actually fully identify anyone. Pick almost any name, there are usual a few hindered to many thousands of people with the same name. Given the address, you don't really know which one.
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You own a car, that ownership , your name, and address needed to contact you if your car is found or involved in an accident and runs away is reasonably considered 'public' information.
The Driver's Privacy Protection Act seems to think it's reasonably "private" information, unless you qualify for an exception, and makes it a crime not to protect it...
Just don't act surprised... (Score:2)
From an operational standpoint, state DMVs have got to be the most abused of the state-level institutions.
SOME of the services provided by the California DMV--
-- Vehicle registration
-- Vehicle and non-vehicle license plating
(Sales/transfers of the above)
-- Clean Vehicle tracking
-- Licensing vehicle manufacturers, sales, and scrappers
-- Driver's licenses
-- State ID
-- RealID
-- Driver Education & Testing
-- All other road user pseudo-education
-- Fines collections
-- Policy Development
-- Manage the mandatory