Texas is making millions of dollars per year selling your personal information to companies and state agencies. A discussion of the practice came up recently in a Senate Finance Committee hearing.
While testifying before the committee about their budget, Department of Public Safety (DPS) Director Col. Steve McCraw was asked whether this was actually happening. “We are selling driver’s license records,” McCraw responded to State Senator Robert Nichols question. “We’ve been doing it since the 70’s. The governing statute is chapters 521 and 730 of the Texas Transportation code.”
DPS alone is selling Texans' information to more than 1,200 different companies and State agencies, but according to Senator Nichols that’s not the end of it.
“That 1,200 is just the DPS entities,” said Nichols in a phone interview. “There’s another 70 entities that get it from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).” Nichols added that the information being sold includes a person's image (photograph), home address, Driver License number, and date of birth.
McCraw expanded on the original question saying DPS is selling Texans Driver License information to a number of businesses and government entities. “Frankly we understand some of those businesses: trucking industry, insurance industry…we kind of get that,” said McCraw. “At the same point in time, some of these industries are using it, repackaging it and selling it as part of their data model.”
Both Nichols and McCraw agree that the information could easily be used for fraudulent purposes. “I know we’re all concerned about identity theft,” said Nichols. “Well good grief there’s enough (information) to go and open a checking account almost right there.” McCraw referred to the practice of selling the information as a “Threat”. “And so it’s a threat today that didn’t exist before,” McCraw told lawmakers. “And every piece of personal identification information that’s out there, that they can get their hands on puts them that much closer to be able to steal someone’s identity and commit fraud.”
Senator Nichols has filed legislation that he believes will significantly curb the practice. Nichols said his bill has strong support in the Texas Senate, even catching the eye of Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, the President of the Texas Senate. “He was very upset that we were selling this information and he gave it a low priority number,” said Nichols. “So it’s Senate Bill 15 (SB-15). And so he went on record that he thinks it’s very important.” The way the Texas Senate system runs, the lower the bill number reflects the higher priority of the legislation.
Nichols refers to his bill as step one in a process of ending the practice. It would limit the sale of the information by DPS, the DMV and the Texas Department of Transportation. The bill actually amends aspects of the Texas Transportation Code chapters, removing the three agencies ability to sell the information. “Not only do we greatly restrict who can have this information, down to State agencies and law enforcement…If you’ve got an attorney on a case or if you are a tow truck or something, you’ve got to get very specific and show proof that you need this information on a one-on-one basis, and that doesn’t mean you get all the information,” said Nichols.
As for those companies and agencies that will still be allowed to get limited personal information, Nichols says there’s a provision that prevents the resale. “At first it tells the agency “Don’t share it”, but it also raises the penalty dramatically for any entities that are doing it anyway, and we also give them a time to purge those records.”