Dave Lieber and Marina Trahan Martinez write:
Last year, I was on to something when I reported to you that Texas state agencies sell our personal information to private companies who then resell to companies that spam us with junk marketing mail and illegal phone calls.
Even though it’s illegal for companies to use our personal data such as driver’s license details and auto registration information to sell to us, they get away with it. Why? States like Texas don’t have incentive to clean up this mess because the government makes millions of dollars.
By selling to a middleman company, states such as Texas claim they aren’t violating federal law prohibiting the selling of information for marketing purposes. See, the middleman sells the data to someone else who uses it for illegal purposes. Doh.
What I didn’t know at the time was how this subjects millions of Texans to more than sheer annoyance. It contributes to security and identity theft. You thought junk mail was merely an annoyance, right?
Joseph H. Malley can prove otherwise.
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