Florida’s $150 Million Sale of Driving Records Under Fire

TALLAHASSEE, FL — Florida’s $150 million windfall related to the sale of driving records to private companies doesn’t sit right with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. The Democrat from the Miami area on Friday called on the U.S. Department of Justice to launch an investigation into the practice’s legality.

According to Nelson, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has sold “the personal information of more than 15 million licensed Florida drivers to at least 75 companies in the last two years.” In an email to media, Nelson asserted the state was paid more than $150 million for doing so.

“In this new era, when identity thieves are causing real damage to millions of hardworking families, the fact that the state is making a profit by selling Floridians’ personal information on the open market is simply unconscionable,” Nelson wrote in a letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch Friday.

Nelson wants the department to investigate to determine if the state’s practice runs afoul of a federal law that prohibits private companies from gaining information related to individuals’ driving records. The Driver’s Privacy Protection Act was approved by Congress in 1994. The law does allow individual states to sell driver’s information for limited reasons, such as statistical analysis, but it prohibits the sale for marketing purposes without a driver's express consent.

Nelson’s request to Lynch comes on the heels of a Fox 13 investigation into the practice. The practice, Fox reported, “raises questions about why the department is putting private information in the hands of third parties without providing oversight as to how the data is actually being used by the buyer.” The network reported some of the buyers include Experian and Acxiom. Others “were businesses that seemed to have no websites, no storefronts, and no answers when we tried to contact them.”

It is unclear if Lynch’s office will launch an investigation.

"The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) does not sell driver or motor vehicle information," Terry L. Rhodes, the department's director, said in a Friday statement. "Driver or motor vehicle information is produced as required by the Federal Driver Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) and Florida’s public records laws."

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