FL: $63 Million Last Year Selling Personal Info On Every Driver In The State

[buckethead]

The state of Florida has been selling its database of driver information to private investigators and research services for years with last year's sale bringing in almost $63 million.
Reported by News Channel 5 in Tampa, the state sells nearly all the information on every license including birthdates and drivers license numbers.
For 1 cent per file, Florida delivers its data to 10 companies: Acxiom Information Securities Service, Inc., Choice Point, E-Funds, Explore Information Services, LexisNexis, Line Barge, Goggan, Blair, & Simpson, Inc., SC Services, ShadowSoft, TLO LLC, and West Services Inc.
The state isn't allowed to sell driver information to the general public -- the people who buy the data do that.
On the ShadowSoft affiliated website PublicData.com a user pays a fee, clicks a box confirming the data won't be used illegally, and gains full access to a trove of personal information.
According to PublicData's website its express purpose is to "[Make] access to public records easy and inexpensive" and it "purchases all of its data from various governments".
Channel 5 tracked down the ShadowSoft contract and mentions the legal battle that failed to stop the sales.
A group of Florida citizens sued to shut down the state’s deal with ShadowSoft. This spring, a judge ruled that the sale of driver’s license information is legal and does not violate the Drivers’ Privacy Protection Act. The lawyer who filed the lawsuit tells the I-Team right now, there are no plans to appeal.
Passed in 1994 following the murder of Rebecca Schaffer by an obsessed fan, the Driver's Privacy Protection Act  doesn't prohibit the sale as long as it's to a "legitimate" person or business.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/florida-made-63-million-selling-driver-information-last-year-2011-7#ixzz1SkXzNenZ

[Jumpinjack]

Great guns! I-phones are tracking us, Google has our home photo, and now our driving information and record is for sale. Next thing you know our blue ray devices in the car will track us on the Interstate ... wait, wait... that's already happening.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Now if we could only use this information for the power of good - like streaming data to the insurance agencies that I rarely speed, avoid accidents and don't really drive all that much anyhow....  Oh!  Yeah, there's an app for that.