Sen. Bill Nelson Asks DOJ to Investigate Florida’s Sale of Driving Records

Last week, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Florida’s practice of selling residents’ information to private companies.

Nelson alleges the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has sold the personal information of more than 15 million Florida residents in the last two years, receiving payments in excess of $150 million.

“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 Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Nov. 18. “I ask that your agency investigate whether the State of Florida is fully adhering to the intent of the law, as any deviation could be severely harmful to the millions of people who trusted the state to keep their information safe.”

According to Nelson’s letter, the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994 prevents states from selling personal information to a private company for marketing purposes without first obtaining an individual’s express consent.

The DPPA was enacted following the death of actress Rebecca Schaeffer who was murdered by a fan who reportedly used the information in her California driver registration records to track her down. The DPPA reportedly allows for penalties of up to $2,500 per violation.

Nelson sent the letter following an investigative report from a Fox affiliate in Tampa, Fla., which suggested that the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles sold the personal information of millions of Florida drivers to at least 75 companies over the past two years.

In 2013, a class action lawsuit was filed against a number of companies who allegedly violated the DPPA by purchasing consumers’ motor vehicle records to use for direct marketing and solicitation purposes. This DPPA class action lawsuit was filed in Florida on behalf of a domestic violence victim whose personal information was acquired by third-party marketing companies without her consent. She feared her abuser would be able to obtain her current physical address, putting her and her family in serious danger.

Florida is not the only state to have allegedly sold drivers’ data to third-party marketing companies without consent. A Texas man has filed multiple class action lawsuits against companies he says illegally obtained his information from state motor vehicle records. He has filed class action lawsuits against a company called Cross-Sell LLC, which allegedly obtains motor vehicle records in order to sell the information for marketing purposes, and a number of other companies he says engage in similar practices that allegedly violate the DPPA.

Attorney Joseph H. Malley of the Law Offices of Joseph H. Malley P.C. represents the plaintiffs in the DPPA class action lawsuits.

The Texas DMV Records Class Action Lawsuits are Laning, et al. v. National Recall & Data Services Inc., et al., Case No. 3:16-cv-02358, Lopez, et al. v. Cross-Sell LLC, et al., Case No. 3:16-cv-02009, and Lopez v. Don Herring Ltd., et al., Case No. 3:16-cv-02663, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.