by Stephen Rivers
- DMVs can legally sell driver data to insurers, brokers, and marketers.
- States profit millions, while drivers have no opt-out or compensation.
- Privacy protections are weak; breaches and misuse are widespread.
If you think the DMV is just where joy goes to die in line, think again. Behind the laminated IDs and number tickets, the Department of Motor Vehicles has quietly transformed into one of America’s most profitable data brokers.
This time, the product isn’t software or ad impressions, though; it’s YOU. Your name, your address, your photo, and your driving history. The paperwork you fill out just to legally pilot a vehicle on the road now doubles as fodder for a government-run marketplace you never opted into.
While the DMVs in over forty states are raking in millions, you, the driver, will never see a single cent.
A Loophole in the Law
The agency actually uses a legal loophole tied to the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) of 1994. That law is the reason why you don’t need to block your license plate when posting a car for sale.
It was supposed to lock data down. Instead, it carved out a single escape hatch under ‘permissible use,’ which ballooned into a sprawling, all-access justification for nearly anyone with a business model to buy up that data.
More: Senators Want FTC To Investigate Automakers That Sell Our Data
DMVs can sell to all sorts of buyers, including, but not limited to, data brokers, marketers, warranty sellers, private investigators, and insurance companies. The way each uses the data can be dramatically different, but they all can have an impact on your life.
What’s the Data Used For?
For example, insurance companies are well-known for using this type of data to set premiums, as we’ve seen multiple times. Private investigators use it to find individuals, their habits, and what they look like. As for marketers and warranty companies, well, where do you think those strangely on-point sales calls come from?
Notably, some praise the arrangement. Rich Robertson is a private investigator and he says that the public can benefit:
“Just recently, I got a guy exonerated from a criminal charge because I was able to access motor vehicle records out of Illinois. And quickly he was able to prove that he could have not have done what they alleged to have done, and the criminal charges were dropped against him,” Robertson told InvestigateTV.
The Extent Of The Operation
A report from NewsMax shows that several states deal in data and that much of it ended up in the wrong hands. In California, the DMV made some $282 million by selling over 2 billion records over a decade.
That information went straight to marketers and insurance companies. Six years ago, it had a breach that sent private data to seven different agencies.
In Texas, the DMV sold data that ended up in a facial recognition database. Then, it suffered a data breach that exposed some 27 million driver records.
Thousands of Floridians ended up losing money to scammers when the DMV sold data to a company connected to an identity theft ring. Louisiana had a similar data breach two years ago that affected every single driver in the state.
Why do all of this if the risks are so obvious? Money. Pure and simple.
The report cites the income from data sales across several states. The lowest amount mentioned is $400,000. Others, like Florida, made some $77 million in a single year via this process. Ripping away this type of cash cow isn’t going to be easy if it’s plausible at all.
What You Can Do
For now, the best any individual citizen can do is to file a DPPA request. Sending a certified letter to the DMV demanding that a block on all non-required data sales can work in some states.
In plenty of others, like Oregon, that letter will get ignored. Some services like DeleteMe and Incogni can submit removal requests as well, but it’s just as possible that they’ll be ignored, too.
It’s worth paying attention to local legislation as well. Just this month, lawmakers in Florida are considering a bill that would ban the sale of data from the DMV to anyone.
House Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman said on X that “Nearly $490 million in Floridians’ personal information has been sold without consent. The State of Florida is not in the business of selling your personal information. I filed HB 357 to make sure this practice ends.”
Nearly $490 million in Floridians’ personal information has been sold without consent.
The State of Florida is not in the business of selling your personal information. I filed HB 357 to make sure this practice ends.
Thank you to @tampabay28 and @FBSaunders for covering this… pic.twitter.com/Oc40CjJviv
Aside from changes to the law either on a state or federal level, it’s unlikely that this practice will stop anytime soon. Colorado killed a bill to end the sale of data from the DMV in 2021.
As of this writing, we couldn’t find any other states currently working to stop DMV data sales.
