Depending on how several lawsuits are decided, marketers may either lose a channel to consumers, or Departments of Motor Vehicles may be turned into 51 shared-mail service providers — one for each state, plus the District of Colombia.
The legal actions stem from states’ use of DriverSource, a vehicle registration mailing program. Through DriverSource, states reduce the cost of sending vehicle renewal notices by outsourcing the task to Imagitas Inc., a subsidiary of Pitney Bowes. Imagitas creates mail packages for the renewal notices, and arranges for advertisers to offer their material within the envelopes.
Six states — Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New York and Ohio — currently use DriverSource. Since the program’s launch in 2001, the states have saved more than $12 million in printing charges, and realized $4 million in revenue, according to Alfie Charles, Imagitas’s vice president of DriverSource.
While advertisers may not use demographic information for selection purposes, they are able to select regions of the state, or particular classes of autos owned, according to Charles.
But plaintiffs in Missouri and Florida are seeking damages from Imagitas, claiming the inclusion of advertising messages in their renewal notices violates the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA).
Specifically, plaintiffs point to DPPA prohibitions on using personal information within motor vehicle records for non-government purposes. In papers filed with the U.S. District Court Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division, representatives of the plaintiff class Marvin Rine, Jacalyn Smith, Martin Martinez, Violet Backman, and Randall Heavrin claim that advertising within their renewal notices has “no obvious state purposes but merely targets Plaintiffs for solicitation of particular commercial ventures.”
The ads also constitute a violation of privacy, the plaintiffs allege.
Advertisers, according to the Florida plaintiff’s court papers, include Home Depot, DirectTV, Ford Motor Company, Sirius radio and others.
Not so fast, say the folks at Imagitas. The text of the DPPA does, in fact, allow use of personal information for “use by an government agency…in carrying out its functions, or any private person or entity acting on behalf of a Federal, State, or local agency in carrying out its functions.”
According to Charles, Imagitas is a government contractor, and is therefore entitled to use information to conduct the government’s business, provided it does not disclose the information it receives from the DMVs.
“We make sure that no advertisers and no other entity receives any personal information that we receive as a requirement for sending out the notices,” Charles said.
That includes the print houses, which are pre-screened and approved by the government to handle sensitive information, Charles added.
Moreover, each individual state sets its own standards for the mail program, controlling, reviewing and approving all content within the envelopes.
Imagitas is seeking to have the suits — nine or so at last count, according to Charles — combined into a single multi-district case. To date, the company has only filed responses in Florida. Activity in both states is on hold pending a decision on the consolidation request. A judge in Florida has requested a full briefing so the case — or cases — can be expedited once the decision has been reached.
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