Posted on 01/21/2007 3:01:28 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Big Brother is selling you.
If you're a Wisconsin driver, outdoor enthusiast or voter, chances are state government has sold your name, address or other potentially sensitive personal information about you.
State officials say they're legally obligated to make the information public. But privacy advocates say collection and sale of personal information by the state erodes personal privacy and puts people at risk of identity theft - especially in light of the December accidental release of more than 171,000 Social Security numbers by the state Department of Revenue.
Social Security numbers and other personal data are used by criminals for online thefts and purchases charged to others. Even if that doesn't happen, the information the government sells about you can end up in your mailbox, however, as advertising or political campaign material.
"Once a person provides information to the government they surrender control over how that information is used, and possibly how it is abused," said Carole Doeppers, a privacy consultant who was the state's first privacy advocate.
The Department of Transportation sold the names, addresses, driver's license numbers and driving records of nearly 3 million residents in 2006, not including December, which are not available, state records show.
Department of Natural Resources officials last year filled 132 requests for the sale of 273 lists of hunters, fishermen, boaters and others licensed by the agency.
And the state Elections Board last year sold perhaps millions of records on the names, addresses and voting records of registered voters.
An Elections Board spokesman says they're legally required to make that information public. It's the same with the DNR and DOT, but they can allow residents to keep their names off requests for lists containing 10 or more names. The Elections Board doesn't do that except for voters who have a court order.
The officials add that while they are required to collect Social Security numbers they are prohibited from selling them. They have policies designed to protect those numbers and other non-public personal information.
But the mistaken disclosure of Social Security numbers by the Department of Revenue last month raised concerns that even confidential data held by the government could be released, putting residents at risk of identity theft.
The disclosure came after the company printing state tax forms included Social Security numbers on the mailing labels. Meredith Helgerson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Revenue, said the printer was not supposed to print the number on the label. But she also said the department erred in giving the number to the printer, and, she said, it wouldn't do that in the future.
Use of the information
While the release of those numbers was a mistake, the government sells other information about state residents, and companies and individuals use the information for a variety of reasons.
Insurers use driving records to investigate claims or determine accident risks. Candidates for office buy voter records to help them develop mailing lists. And direct marketers purchase lists of outdoor enthusiasts that they then resell them to other businesses.
Ariel Molvig, 28, a waiter and cartoonist from Madison, said he's concerned about the sale of his personal information.
"I'm a little paranoid, and have a bit of a libertarian streak," said Molvig, who was at the Department of Motor Vehicles last week to get a driver's license. "I definitely wouldn't want my personal information sold to solicitors."
Anna Momont, 26, a Madison medical student, said of the sale of personal information: "I don't know if it's something our government should be in the business of."
But Robert Drechsel, a UW- Madison journalism professor, said determining what kind of personal information about state residents should be available to the public and what should be kept private is "a tough balance."
It's not hard to argue that Social Security numbers should be kept private, he said.
On the other hand, "You have to ask yourself, if we know who has fishing licenses, what's the big deal?" he said.
For tracking parents
With agencies doing everything from managing unemployment claims to licensing dentists and funeral directors to registering vehicles, Wisconsin state government collects a vast amount of personal information on its residents, said Jim Rabbitt, director of the state Bureau for Consumer Protection, which includes the recently created Office for Privacy Protection.
Typically, the agencies collect only what is required to do their jobs, Rabbit said, though in many cases they're required to collect Social Security numbers in an effort to better track parents who fail to pay child support, he said.
But it's unclear exactly how much information state government collects and what is accessible to the public and what is kept private because there's no central repository for that information, Rabbitt said.
Jan Mueller, director of the Legislative Audit Bureau, said her agency has never conducted a large-scale audit of the breadth of personal information collected by state government and whether that information is well protected. She called that "a monumental task."
And Scott Larrivee, a spokesman for the state Department of Administration, said there's no government office that keeps track of the kind of personal information maintained by the state.
But in a March 2001 report for the ACLU of Wisconsin's Data Privacy Project, Doeppers found that the state maintains nearly 60 registries of information on state residents. Many, such as those that track public health concerns like HIV/AIDS or tuberculosis cases, are confidential, while others contain information available to the public.
According to agencies contacted by the Wisconsin State Journal, information not available to the public includes salary data collected by the Department for Workforce Development under its W-2 and unemployment insurance programs, information that would identify children in the child support program run by the Department for Health and Family Services, and detailed tax information maintained by Revenue, according to officials from those agencies.
Sensitive Social Security numbers, bank account and other information on government workers and former workers is not available to the public through the Department of Employee Trust Funds, a spokesman said.
Criteria for buyers
Under state and federal law, only certain personal information can be sold by the Department of Transportation.
Names, addresses, license numbers, and driving records are public but photographs, signatures and other information such as gender, height and weight are not, according to Karen Schwartz, chief of the qualifications and issuance section of the Bureau of Driver's Services. Birth dates, driver classifications and donor status is also public, she said.
Purchasers also must meet one of 13 criteria to obtain the information. The criteria allows insurance companies and employers whose workers drive commercial vehicles to access the data without a driver's consent, for example, but prohibits individuals from getting the records of their friends and neighbors without consent, Schwartz said.
Purchasers pay $5 per record. Schwartz said she doesn't know how much money the department took in last year for selling the data, but she didn't dispute a State Journal estimate of more than $14 million based on information provided by her. The money goes to the state general fund, and doesn't stay with the Department of Motor Vehicles, she said.
The department collects Social Security numbers to verify identity, but those numbers aren't sold, she said. State law requires the department to provide Social Security numbers to Revenue if requested, usually to pursue tax scofflaws, and to the Bureau of Child Support, she said.
What the DNR does
At the DNR, officials collect the Social Security number because they're required to under law for child support tracking. But they don't sell that information or use the number to identify purchasers of outdoor recreation licenses, said Diane Brookbank, director of customer service and licensing.
The DNR sells lists of customers who purchase various licenses, but it allows the customers to opt out of such purchases that involve 10 or more people, Brookbank said.
For example, more than 800,000 people have resident fishing licenses, but only 184,099 names are on the list that is sold, said Diane Crawford, a DNR information manager.
Crawford said the DNR sells its 37 lists at roughly the cost required to produce them. The fishing license list, the bowhunting list, and the list of people holding resident and non- resident sturgeon spearing licenses cost $100, for example. The charge for the list of 429,165 names on the boating license list is $200.
The DNR received $35,910 on those sales last year, Crawford said.
Among the purchasers was the state Natural Resources Foundation, which bought the 2006 list of owners of the state "conservation patron" license. Camille Zanoni, director of member relations, said the foundation uses the list to solicit donations and send educational materials to licensees.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin purchased two lists - those who hunt deer by gun and by bow.
"Any time you can find a little bit about a constituency out there and what makes them tick and what they enjoy you can craft a (literature) piece or a phone call to get their support," said Rick Wiley, state GOP executive director.
State Democrats didn't purchase DNR lists in 2006, but they have in the past, said Jessica Erickson, a spokeswoman. She said the party purchased databases on Wisconsin sportsmen from other sources last year.
The top purchaser, William- Neil Associates of Sidney, Neb., bought 26 lists at a cost of $3,005, according to the DNR.
Wendy Matthews, the company's manager, said she couldn't comment on what it does with the information. According to its Web site, the company maintains and sells lists of outdoor enthusiasts and other consumers.
Voter information
The Elections Board collects the names, addresses, dates of birth, driver's license numbers and Social Security numbers of registered voters, said spokesman Kyle Richmond. But it only sells the names, addresses and voting records, he said. The entire database costs $12,500, he said, while lesser orders cost $5 per 1,000 voters plus a $25 fee.
According to the board, more than three dozen people and organizations purchased voter data last year. The board hasn't added up the number of voter names that have been sold, but Richmond said it would likely be in the millions.
The purchasers include state and local officials and their staff members and companies that maintain voter databases.
In addition to Transportation, Revenue, and the Elections Board, several other state agencies collect information that is available to the public.
The state Department of Regulation and Licensing, for example, collects the name, date of birth, address, Social Security number and education for people in the 105 job titles licensed by the agency, said executive assistant Larry Martin.
Social Security numbers can't be obtained by the public. But the regulation agency sells lists that include name, mailing address and profession. In 2006, the department made 1,163 list sales, Martin said.
Catherine Sheskey, assistant registrar for UW-Madison, said that the university holds information on more than 40,000 students, but sensitive information like Social Security numbers is kept private and students can choose to make other information private as well.
Phil Hull, an institutional reporting specialist at UW- Madison, said that each semester about 50 businesses and other groups ranging from a local credit union to Web site for rating professors pay for information like students' names, addresses and emails.
should they have to prove that their info is included in what's been sold?
Government records like these are an absolute boon to stalkers. Stalking by revenge-minded individuals is a growing problem. I know because I've been stalked, burglarized, vandalized, and generally harassed for 27 years and running.
Privacy out the window. Did I read correctly and see that you have to have a court order to opt out?
This is nothing new. Keep in mind that if you hold or held just about any government or professional licence, your information is public anyway.
In the computer age, there is no hiding. You should simply strive to control the information out there on you by keeping public and private addresses, passwords, emails, and phone numbers. Any form you fill out for anything might eventually be sold or shared with someone, so keep this in mind.
Hint: If you can avoid it, don't put your telephone number on any check you use to pay for something. If the merchant insists, don't give the right number. Otherwise, it'll likely show up on the Web.
I'm retired Army. I have no secrets. Inside or out, LOL!
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