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FYI this is governed by a federal law called the Driver's Privacy Protection Act https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2721 https://www.law.cornell.edu/us
by staticautomatic 7y ago
FYI this is governed by a federal law called the Driver's Privacy Protection Act
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2721 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2721
I have worked with the vendors who procure and sell these data. Happy to answer any questions.
- scoobyyabbadoo 7y agoAny restrictions on use of such data? I know voter registration databases have tons of restrictions
- staticautomatic 7y agoYeah. They are described in section (b)Permissible Uses in the link.
- scoobyyabbadoo 7y agoInteresting, thank you. It seems that the only permitted uses of this are for government-led investigations or to do things related to your car. Any other use without express consent of the individual is expressly prohibited.
- staticautomatic 7y agoThat's not an accurate characterization of the permitted uses. Permitted uses 4, 5, and 6, for example, are all well beyond the scope of what you described.
- tzm 7y agoThe public should know the economics of how their privacy is sold online. What is the price of something like this? Are there any restrictions on use? Do you have an example data license agreement, etc? Do you have example of column definition / schema to understand the scope of data?
- staticautomatic 7y agoAs I mentioned in reply to another comment, the restrictions on use are listed in section (b)Permissible Uses of the DPPA. The price varies considerably depending upon what kind of data you're after (and setting aside volume discounts). Things like driver's license searches, vehicle searches, auto accidents, and moving violation history cost $0.50 to $2.00 if you're buying a la carte, but you're usually getting these data as part of a report costing $5.00 to $10.00. You can pull detailed driving records from about 18 different states at cost of anywhere between $7 and $25, depending on which state it is (these reports are a la carte only). I don't have a license agreement I'm allowed to send you, but I can tell you that many government agencies around the country have contracts with these brokers, so if you know the name of the product/company selling the data then you can find some of the contracts online. Except for those expensive reports, you never really know where the data you're looking at came from. I suppose I could run identical searches on people with the DPPA data flag turned on or off to compare but haven't had occasion to. You basically just get back whatever fields you request-- they might be populated with DPPA data and they might not. You never know and the broker's don't annotate the response with anything indicating the data's provenance.
- nickthemagicman 7y agoHow does one go about obtaining this info as a private entity?
- staticautomatic 7y ago1) Be a business and not an individual 2) Call a broker and tell them you want an account 3) Give a reason for wanting or needing the data that they approve of 4) Undergo an audit of your business and physical office 5) Complete paperwork saying you want access to the DPPA data and what your permissible use is 6) Profit
- nickthemagicman 7y agoThanks for this info. What kind of a broker? Is there a website for audit requirements? Also, who are the vendors that sell this data?
- staticautomatic 7y agoI refer to the major vendors in the space as brokers because they re-sell data from sources you'd have a hard time negotiating with directly. The big ones are mainly legal tech giants and credit agencies. TransUnion makes a product called TLO, LexisNexis makes one called Accurint. I forget the names of the other products, but WestLaw/Bloomberg and Experian have them too.
- nickthemagicman 7y agoThank you!