The following report is by Action News Jax:
This includes your name, address and date of birth. Action News Jax Investigator Ben Becker looked into why it’s allowed and how it potentially could compromise your financial safety.
Becker discovered the State of Florida sells your personal DMV information to dozens of private companies, mainly data brokers, who can request it or pay for unlimited electronic access.
Your name, address, date of birth and even your driver’s license number are available for as little as a penny per file to send you junk mail, and it adds up. From 2021 to 2023, the state made $263 million, and you can’t opt-out.
The biggest bulk buyers of your information are data brokers like LexisNexis at more than $90 million, followed by $53 million from Tessera Data and $40 million from safety holdings.
James Lee is the CEO of the ID Theft Resource Center, and he said that selling personal data is legal under the 1994 federal law known as the Driver Privacy Protection Act. The DPPA outlines exceptions as long as it’s considered a “legitimate” entity, like insurance companies, unsolicited offers for extended warranties or even private investigators.
It’s a way for state governments to raise revenue without having to raise taxes. There are ways you may take that data that would be legitimate and use it in an illegitimate way and get in trouble.
Lee explained.
This happens because once your information has been sold to a third party, it can be sold again and again.
An updated federal privacy bill with significant bipartisan support was introduced in 2022. It would have provided a national standard on what data companies can gather from individuals and how they can use it, but it never made it out of committee.
In 2023, a Russian-linked cyber attack targeting the Louisiana and Oregon DMVs leaked the sensitive data of nearly 10 million drivers.
In 2020, LexisNexis agreed to pay about $5 million to settle a class action lawsuit in North Carolina. It alleged the company sold DMV crash reports to law firms, which used it to get more business.
Becker emailed the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. The agency said it’s following statutory law saying in part, “Entities receiving electronic public record must sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) … The MOU requires an audit by an independent party to ensure controls are in place to adequately protect information.”
Driver Pete Petitt feels helpless.
It’s definitely upsetting, but it’s the way everything is now. Anybody can get anything on anybody.
He said.
So, where does all that $263 million go? The state said it deposited into the Highway Safety Operating Trust Fund.
The state told Becker that only 2 companies have been banned from buying data: Mala Group, Inc. and Nationwide Vehicle Recall Services.
How can you protect yourself? One way is to create a separate email account for your license or registration paperwork. The good news is the DMV does not provide driver’s license pictures to these data companies, which considering how unflattering many people think those pictures can be, that is at least something to smile about.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
Psalm 44:12
Slavery never went away; it just changed different forms. Granted, this is just theft when you get right down to it, but anything and everything anymore has a hidden price tag on it, and these wicked people will sell out to anyone for anything.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
The WinePress needs your support! If God has laid it on your heart to want to contribute, please prayerfully consider donating to this ministry. If you cannot gift a monetary donation, then please donate your fervent prayers to keep this ministry going! Thank you and may God bless you.
what do you think of Wise Food Storage they claim to be chemical and preservative free freeze dried? lasting up to 25 years plus
I am not a fan of any of these MREs in general. They are loaded with preservatives which is why they have a ridiculous shelf life. The Army has said in an official study you can only go about 21 days (three weeks) surviving on MREs, and that’s being pushed to the soldier’s limits. The people who are loading up on these are not only wasting their money but are going to die from starvation and sickness quickly. You need REAL, clean food and water, and learn how to preserve that longer and keep it compact like our ancestors did. Here is an example of that:
https://winepressnews.com/2023/11/03/pemmican-the-ultimate-survival-food-lost-in-time-that-you-need-to-learn-how-to-make/
Wow, my state makes the news for them selling names and such. It’s my name and address, so where’s my cut and why was it sold without my permission?
Psa 41:7 All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt.
All govt entitled are corporations, made that way by the corporate district of Columbia. In legalese, corporations can only communicate with other corporations via paper because they are fictional persons. This is how Americans were enslaved and States lost their constitutional authority over the federal government.
The order of power being the created cannot be more powerful than it’s creator.
DC incorporated the States and all Americans using Birth certificates and/or any documents signed where the signed agrees to being a US Citizen or Resident of the corporate State. To see this, you have to look at law dictionaries where English words get redefined as TERMs to deceive us with.
Of course none of this was taught to us in public schools.
The legal name written in all capital letters is the incorporated name we are given, like JOHN DOE. Because the state created that name, it can treat it like it owns it. When we admit to being that all caps name, we are treated like we have no rights.
The illegal aliens crossing our borders legally have more rights than us because they have not been incorporated yet by the 14th amendment.
This used to drive me crazy, but I now see it as a form of tribute we as a nation has to pay, perhaps even related deut 28:68 because as a nation, we have fallen so far from the truth of Jesus Christ we have voluntarily allowed ourselves to be enslaved by the bankers who control our govts.