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Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms

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Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms

#61

Post by tombert »

amerine wrote: post #57
tombert wrote: post #53

I think this is disgusting, but as someone who grew up in Florida, I do have to wonder what additional information they are actually getting from the DMV; the driver's license had my name, birthday, and address on it, and most of that was fairly easy to find, even before the succubus of Facebook or Google. I guess being the sort of anti-corporate person that I am, I do definitely have issue with the US government doi…

How easy would it be for a company to source contact and location information about everybody in a State? Easy to find? Sure. That’s a bit different than the local governments selling my information that I’m legally required to give them though. This is shady bullshit.

Fair enough.

I really don't exactly know where we should draw the line of "governments selling stuff for supplemental funding". I'm definitely against them aggregating and selling my data, and my immediate visceral reaction is "the government shouldn't sell anything", but I don't think realistically any harm comes from a teacher having a bake sale to pay for additional school supplies. A teacher at a public school is technically a state government employee, just like DMV workers.

That said, a line does need to be drawn; I guess it's up for the philosophers to figure out where that line needs to be.

Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms

#62

Post by justaguyhere »

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?

In my team of 7 people, it is nearly impossible to bring up dumb ideas without someone immediately poking a hole in it ...

Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms

#63

Post by asark »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #38

Been 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.

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 fee for mail service if I must. Worth it. Just end unsolicited bulk mail, and make solicited bulk mailers ask me to opt in again every year or so, and stop on a negative response, or none at all. It's not free speech, it's my friggin' mailbox, and others shouldn't be able to damn near DOS it just because they want me to know about their special offer or lie to me about politics. I get that the postal service needs that money to stay afloat, hence my being cool with a fee of some sort replacing the bulk mailing.

For that matter, I'm not sure how a good portion of junk mail isn't fraud or false advertising or something along those lines. I get a lot of really deceptive commercial mail, pretending to be things that it isn't, like official notices, bills, credit cards (god those fake card advertisements are stupid), and so on.

Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms

#65

Post by burmer »

dqv wrote: post #22
totalrobe wrote: post #17

NC does the same thing. And if you buy a house, expect to receive endless junk mail disguised as mortgage documentation.

Seriously. I can't believe the mail doesn't violate some kind of FTC regulation about impersonating your mortgage lender. So many of the mailpieces were designed in such a way that I almost believed it was coming from the lender and not some third party company that wants me to buy a warranty.

Yup, we were warned about this beforehand, and saw it too.

Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms

#66

Post by axaxs »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #38

Been 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..

Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms

#67

Post by tomschlick »

asark wrote: post #63
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #38

Been 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.

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…

> I don't get why IRL mail spam is still allowed.

Because bulk mail makes up the majority of the USPS operating budget.

Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms

#68

Post by smt88 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #40
smt88 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Large, secured loans are recorded in public ledgers by law. I believe the motivation was to prevent people from going around and securing multiple loans with the same asset, before credit-scoring agencies existed.

> Large, secured loans are recorded in public ledgers by law. That's not true of “large, secured loans” in general. OTOH, it is true of certain real property interests, including those of both owners and secured lenders; this is about the size of a secured loan, it's about clarity of title to real estate.

What large, secured loans are not a matter of public record under UCC[1]?

My understanding is that if it can be repossessed, the lender must have recorded the debt.

It applies to assets other than real estate, too.

Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms

#69

Post by TallGuyShort »

asark wrote: post #63
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #38

Been 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.

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…

There's a large trash can right next to my neighborhood's mailboxes that everyone dumps the junk into with barely a glance - really illustrates how wasteful it is to be delivering it in the first place. It's a disgustingly huge trash can that has to be emptied daily.

Re: Florida DMV sells personal info to private companies, marketing firms

#70

Post by spartas »

asark wrote: post #63
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #38

Been 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.

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…

You do pay a fee for mail service. While USPS is not directly funded by taxes, it is funded by the Federal Government. Our taxes are responsible for financing the government's initiatives.

The problem is that the cost to bulk mail (at least 200 pieces) is merely $0.19 per piece. If you want to DOS an entire zip code regardless, EDDM is actually cheaper (per piece) at $0.187. USPS is getting that money. You would need to pay a fee higher than $0.19 per piece of junk mail that you receive for USPS to just break even.

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