JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Florida lawmaker is accusing the state of selling personal information to third parties and generating nearly half a billion dollars from the sale of driver’s licenses and ID card information.
State Representative Peggy Gossett-Seidman said she is looking to change that through the Motor Vehicle Operator Privacy Act, a bill that aims to ban all commercial sales of driver’s license and ID-card information.
The bill is still in the very early stages, but it comes after claims that the state has been taking personal information on driver’s licenses and ID cards, and selling them to third parties like data brokers, insurance firms, and foreign-owned entities.
What this includes is birthdates, crash records, names and addresses.
Gossett-Seidman said she’s heard accounts of people going to the DMV, and a day or two later, they’re seeing hundreds of pieces of mail, identity theft, or even marketers coming to knock on their doors and trying to sell them services.
“I believe firmly that no one saw this coming. A lot of people in office now and agencies now at high levels didn’t even know a lot of this was going on, but what happened is IT just moved ahead at light speed. And in many cases, the IT at the government levels have not. And that’s where we’re all taking a hard look,” Gossett-Seidman said.
Here are some of the goals outlined in the new bill:
- Ban all commercial sales of driver’s license and ID card information
- Block foreign and foreign-owned entities from accessing Florida driver data
- Require written consent before any non-law-enforcement disclosure
Plus, it aims to lower insurance premiums.
If the bill were to make it through the whole legislation process, it would go into effect next July.