This is pretty bad. The usual argument of "if you don't like it don't use Facebook/Google/(insert company here)" doesn't apply here. You have to interact with the government to get a DL, there are no competitors. Therefor government services should treat personal information with the utmost respect and discretion, not sell it off to the highest bidder.
Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms
81–90 of 151 posts
Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's what bothers me most, it's sold for such a junk purpose. Your privacy is bartered off for cents so that a company can spam you with products you'll never buy. If we put half as much effort into bettering the world as we do building the advertising machine we would be a utopia.
Perhaps the takeaway is we do not incentivize bettering the world enough.
And/or start disincentivizing advertising more. If there were more hoops to jump through, maybe more people would find something better to do with their time than advertising.
Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms
#83I’m not sure about Florida, but many states also make it illegal to not put your actual, honest, this-is-where-I-sleep-every-night residence address on your DL/ID card, too, making this doubly bad, as they then publicize data that is directly relevant to the physical safety of yourself and your family. Avoiding it is illegal.
And even if they don't voter registration almost always requires a real physical address, and is often a public record. So victims of domestic violence, stalking etc are incentivized not to register to vote.
Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms
#84Been happening for decades. When I got my driver's license (in the 1980's) in Iowa, they misspelled my name - Soseph instead of Joseph. I asked for a corrected license. They typed up another one but didn't go back and correct the record. So, I got solicitations in the mail for months for Soseph Altmaier. And that was before computers were used much.
Precisely. Kentucky did the same. Though, I mostly found it beneficial as I received a lot of coupons from home stores..
I got fliers for colleges. First drivers license - college age. Some marketer put that together.
Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms
#85That isn't unusual. NY and other states bordering Ontario sell driver data to the private company that operates the 407 toll highway. The galling thing is that most Canadian provinces have data privacy laws that prevent their own citizen's data from being shared with the same company.
Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms
#86This is very annoying and disappointing. I am a resident in the Tampa, Fl area. There is no other option where I can get a new driver's licensed renew the title for my vehicle. Since I'm finding out about this now my guess is there is no opt-out option either. This sucks because I get rid of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp trying to secure my self a little bit. But I just get screwed in another way.
Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't get why IRL mail spam is still allowed. It's a fucking nuisance. 95% of the mail I get is junk mail. Another 4% is recurring bill notices or something similarly low-value (yeah, I could probably make some of those go away by logging into whatever-it-is and checking a box somewhere, but it's overwhelmed by the junk mail anyway). Maybe 1% is something I actually care about. And I get a lot of mail. I'd pay a fe…
> It's a fucking nuisance It's also a monumental waste of resources: process trees for paper, process inks, print the spam, ship spam to distribution center, ship spam to local dispatch, drive spam to mailbox, recipient puts spam directly into trash, garbage collector drives to collect spam, dump spam into a hole in the ground, bury the spam. While I'm sure it's inaccurate, that's about the gist of it, isn't it? You…
> While I'm sure it's inaccurate, that's about the gist of it, isn't it?
You forgot the waste of electricity and people-hours that is designing the spam. Otherwise, that's about it for the primary waste. There undoubtedly are second-order effects as well.
What's worst, this waste is practically unbounded. The answer to your competitor acquiring customers through sending out spam is to send out even more spam.
Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What did they expect it to be used for? Genealogy reports? /s Serious answer, but I'd guess background checks and such?
> background checks Without explicit consent from the person being checked? That still seems to be a privacy violation to me.
Why would that be without explicit consent?
Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don't get why IRL mail spam is still allowed. Because bulk mail makes up the majority of the USPS operating budget.
Back of the envelope (haha) we're talking somewhere in the range of $10-20/person/month, gross. Say half that after costs incurred by actually transporting and delivering that bulk mail (so, 50% profit, which seems high but is fine for the sake of argument). I dunno about you, but I wouldn't just vote for a $5-10/month tax to eliminate junk mail entirely , I'd go door-to-door campaigning for it. I'd make signs. I'd c…
You've neglected methods and cost of enforcement. Getting rid of the bulk rate for spam would help tremendously, but even at higher rates it's still going to be profitable for a lot of companies. Real estate, credit card, and automobile companies are the first that come to mind for me.
Politically, I expect the American Postal Workers' Union will put up a tremendous fight.
Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms
#90I am fascinated by the steps that lead to such decisions. When someone initially mentioned this idea, no one in the chain objected? Like, no one took 10 seconds to pause and say, this is not right? If they did, they got overruled? In my team of 7 people, it is nearly impossible to bring up dumb ideas without someone immediately poking a hole in it ...
> I am fascinated by the steps that lead to such decisions. When someone initially mentioned this idea, no one in the chain objected? Like, no one took 10 seconds to pause and say, this is not right? If they did, they got overruled?
There are plenty of reasons:
-- Manager is a tyrant and no one wanted to get on his or her bad side.
-- Directors made this mandatory, with no room for negotiation
-- Government might be cash strapped and selling this kind of information might be in much-needed funds.
-- Government lawyers reviewed the legality of it and constructed an argument that could hold up in court.