Don’t mess with Texas! Everyone needs to relax; don’t you know privacy is for terrorists?
From Tech Dirt:
The Texas DMV claims its “top priority” is protecting drivers’ information, but that hardly seems to be the case when it’s pulling in $2.1 million a year selling it off. There are protections in place, but they are flimsy at best.
It would be interesting to see what these “limits” are. The spreadsheet obtained by CBS 11 of Dallas, TX shows that 2,448 different entities purchased this information from the DMV last year. The purchasers listed range from towing companies to debt collectors to university parking lot patrols. Elliston states that the purchasing companies are not allowed to use the information for direct contact or advertising purposes.
A brief look at the spreadsheet seems to indicate the opposite: auto dealers make up the largest percentage of purchasers. Moreover, Elliston seems to have his facts wrong on the Driver Privacy Protection Act, at least as it pertains to Texas drivers.
The Driver Privacy Protection Act is a federal law. And the fine print actually says businesses can use your information for marketing or solicitations if the state has obtained your consent. That means, some drivers can opt in or out of these databases.
Problem is – Texas didn’t adopt that portion of the law. So, drivers in the Lone Star State are stuck.
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Mike
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I think we need a new law that requires the people who support a law to pay for the law; i.e., if you and 100,000,000 other people support finding, convicting and imprisoning murderers, you and that 100,000,000 other people will pay for it with a ‘murderer’ rate attached to your yearly bill.
If you want pot smokers similarly hunted down and imprisoned, but only 10,000 of your fellow citizens feels so strongly, you and only 10,000 other people will share in that cost; obviously, this means far more money per person will be involved.
Again with this new law; want the ‘right’ to buy personal data from the DMV? Okay, you and the other tow companies and telemarketers will be the only ones taxed to pay for all attendant costs; in this case, perhaps DMV personnel time and computer database costs. May 10 bucks a page for printing too, heh. And if there’s a lawsuit about the unconstitutionality of your new law, all the costs of that are yours and your cohorts to bear.
I also think we need to take the entire however-million laws we currently have on the books and have a vote on every damn one of them. ‘Do you support this law? I mean, REALLY support it, with your own money?’ Because in the end, that’s what it is, our money; but at this point, it’s all assessed equally across the board so that pot smokers (for instance) are in the odd situation of paying taxes to support their own demonization, as are DMV users in this particular law.
First law to be voted on: Congressional pay rates and automatic pensions…, not to mention drone usage. And the tax-exemption of all church-y organizations. Feel free to add on others you may feel strongly about.