Intense negotiations are underway between a broad coalition of industry groups, state officials, and members of the Senate to keep the Drivers Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) of 1994 from being watered down.
A provision in the multi-billion dollar highway and mass transit subsidy funding bill, officially called the FY 2000-2001 Department of Transportation Appropriations bill (S-1143), would replace the DPPA’s opt-out provision with an opt-in program.
Under the DPPA, licensed drivers and registered motor vehicle owners can choose to prohibit their personal information from being sold or rented for marketing purposes.
Many direct marketers, including insurance companies, banks, other financial institutions and auto manufacturers, use information from state motor vehicle records to reach existing and potential customers for their products and services.
Buried deep in the appropriations bill, which the Senate is expected to consider some time this week, is a provision that would prohibit states “from selling, or otherwise providing to another person or entity, personal information contained in a driver’s license (or in any motor vehicle record of such driver) without the driver’s express written consent, except to law enforcement agencies.”
Members of the coalition — the Direct Marketing Association, National Federation of Nonprofits, Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, as well as representatives of the insurance and newspaper industries and state motor vehicle directors — “are working with Senate staff members to come to some resolution that keep the DPPA from being watered down,” according to Richard A. Barton, the DMA’s senior vice president, Congressional matters.
“We’re emphasizing the opt-out provisions of the DPPA in our talks with members of the Senate and their staffs,” he said, adding that changing the DPPA’s opt-out provision with an opt-in program “would be very, very severe blow to those of us who use information in state motor vehicle files for marketing and other purposes.”
The issue could become moot by the U.S. Supreme Court later this year after it decides the constitutionality of the DPPA. The Clinton Administration is contesting two lower federal court decisions voiding the law and barring its enforcement.
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