Infuriating Report Reveals DMVs Across

the US Are Selling Your Personal Info and

Making Millions

(Note :The tag along video player and/or randomly inserted ad blocks or statements/links are not part of this article. They are aggravating and a hindrance to the continuity of the article.  I apologize for the aggravation. I have no control over their placement in the body of this article.)

TOPICS:Consumer RightsMatt AgoristPrivacySurveillance

From : https://www.activistpost.com/2019/09/infuriating-report-reveals-dmvs-across-the-us-are-selling-your-personal-info-and-making-millions.html

SEPTEMBER 21, 2019

By Matt Agorist

Anyone who has ever had to stand in a long line to pay the state for the privilege of renewing your driver’s license knows how infuriating that experience can be. The bureaucratic high-horse mentality of many of the DMV workers is so brazen and overt that DMVs have earned a notoriously horrid reputation in every state. But more infuriating than long lines and power-tripping bureaucrats, however, it the fact that according to a new report, these power-tripping bureaucrats are selling your data to private entities.

And they are making millions doing it.

According to a scathing report from Motherboard, government-run motor vehicle departments across the country are taking your personal information—entrusted solely to them by you—and selling it to the highest bidder. These sales are netting DMVs across the county millions in profits.

Activist Post Recommended Book: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Ever wonder where all these spam calls for credit cards and vehicle warranties come from? Well now you have likely found the culprit, and it’s the government.

While it is understood that DMVs can sell information for legitimate purposes to insurance companies, many of these sales were to nefarious entities, according to the report.

When most people go to the DMV, they most likely think that their information is safe. However, according to the report, which was comprised of multiple public records requests, after you give your personal information to the DMV, they turn around and sell it to almost anyone who asks.

This extremely personal information is easily obtained by private investigators, credit agencies, and data leeching companies like LexisNexis. According to its website, LexisNexis sells dozens of various reports to anyone who wants it, all of which contain information on you.

“You need to learn what they’ve been doing, when they’ve been doing it, who they’ve been doing it with and how long it has been going on. You need to see proof with your own eyes,” says the website of Integrity Investigations, one private investigator company that purchases data from DMVs.

Integrity Investigations advertises to its customers that they are able to obtain this data to aid them in the surveillance of spouses or significant others to attempt to catch them cheating. While this may seem benign, this information could be sold to people who’ve fled abusive relationships and this is the only way to keep their whereabouts secret.

“The selling of personally identifying information to third parties is broadly a privacy issue for all and specifically a safety issue for survivors of abuse, including domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and trafficking,” Erica Olsen, director of Safety Net at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, told Motherboard in an email. “For survivors, their safety may depend on their ability to keep this type of information private.”

While many will find this information infuriating, everything these DMVs are doing is entirely legal and falls under the ironically titled law, the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) of 1994. As Motherboard points out, the DPPA was created in 1994 after a private investigator, hired by a stalker, obtained the address of actress Rebecca Schaeffer from a DMV. The stalker went on to murder Schaeffer. The purpose of the law was to restrict access to DMV data, but it included a wide range of exemptions, including for the sale to private investigators.

“The DPPA is one of several federal laws that should now be updated,” Marc Rotenberg, president and executive director of privacy activism group EPIC, wrote in an email to Vice. “I would certainly reduce the number of loopholes,” he added, referring to how the law might be changed.

When the government, who pretends to protect consumers and citizens by going after those who steal and abuse our data, gets in bed with these very same people, something has gone serious wrong—or right, if you are the state.

What this case illustrates is that nothing is sacred when it comes to government. These institutions all claim to exist to protect our privacy and our data while at the same time selling us out at the drop of a hat. Land of the free? More like land of the exploited tax cattle whose existence is but a battery in the machine of tyranny and technocracy.

Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project, where this article first appeared. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Minds.

End of article.

Note:  

I do not necessarily endorse any products or services mentioned in these videos, on this web site or in any subsequent written material by the original authors of the presented material or this web site. I do not condone the use of any type of “inserted” advertising or p/u players into the body of an article, that is the site owner’s practice, not mine.  I do not intend to, nor do I, derive any profits or income from posting this material.

I may not agree with everything presented in this material , however I have probably found that there is sufficient valuable information to justify bringing it forward for you to sift through in order to expand your awareness and to trigger your desire to dig deeper to learn more about the subject matter presented. 

My posts are not meant to be polished works, they are more utilitarian, meant to be a gathering of data/info loosely pulled together to become a starting point for further investigation and research. Consider it more like semi-processed mined dirt, something still requiring further sifting to extract it’s wealth.

I do not make any claims of being the original creator or owner of the material that I generally post. My sole intent is to share and pass on information that has contributed to my awakening process.  I will normally print my two cents worth in “green” so as to distinguish it from the original author/creator of the posted material.

I present this material for educational, informational, and research purposes only. It is not my intent to maliciously attack nor offend anybody (unless you are a Luciferian Swamp Dweller), so please develop a thicker skin, realize it is not my intent to insult, forgive me, shed it like water off a duck’s back and move on, a better person.   The material is presented for your edification, you filter it as you see fit according to your perspective. May God’s blessings and wisdom be upon you.