Saturday, November 29, 2003

Are Florida DMV Records For Sale? A reader writes: Here's a new twist on the opt-out program ... I live in Brevard County, Florida, and received my vehicle tag renewal in the snail mail today. The form allows me to renew in person, by mail, or via the Internet. The mail-in form has a place on the back to check the following items: "Please withhold release of my personal information in my Department of Motor Vehicle Records" and "Please do not release my name and address for use in marketing programs." The form implies that both the State of Florida Department of Motor Vehicles, and the Brevard County Tax Collector's Office will use my personal information for marketing purposes if I do not check these boxes. I've come to expect that merchants, with whom I ve done business, and even PayPal with their latest schemes, use much of my personal information without my explicit consent. But I think this raises the bar on misuse of private information, at least in that its an opt-out and not an opt-in program, and especially by the government. What's next? Will the IRS begin selling my personal information to Intuit for a promotion on their TurboTax software? 12:09:07 PM    comment []