Wiles v. Worldwide Info., Inc.
Decision Date | 15 August 2011 |
Docket Number | Case No. 09–4164–CV–C–NKL. |
Citation | 809 F.Supp.2d 1059 |
Parties | Sam WILES and Carol Watkins, Individually and on Behalf of All Others Similarly Situated, Plaintiffs, v. WORLDWIDE INFORMATION, INC., Defendant. |
Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Don P. Saxton, Mitchell L. Burgess, Burgess & Lamb, P.C., Ralph K. Phalen, Kansas City, MO, for Plaintiffs.
Andrew P. Botti, McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton, PA, Woburn, MA, Brett J. Coppage, James Moloney, V., Richard N. Bien, Lathrop & Gage LLP, Kansas City, MO, for Defendant.
This case concerns the sale by Missouri of its driver's license database to Worldwide Information, Inc. (“Worldwide”), which in turn markets the personal information to third parties. The first question presented is whether the Driver's Privacy Protection Act (“DPPA”) permits a reseller to obtain drivers license information from a state when its sole purpose is to resell the information to third parties. The second question presented is whether a reseller can disclose the entire database to a business or individual having only a potential future use for some of the information sold, so long as there is no evidence of specific misuse, such as identity theft or stalking. The majority of courts which have decided these questions have concluded that the DPPA permits the practices. The Court disagrees.
In 1994, Congress enacted the DPPA to protect the privacy of drivers. The DPPA makes it generally “unlawful for any person knowingly to obtain or disclose personal information, from a motor vehicle record, for any use not permitted under section 2721(b) of this title.” 18 U.S.C. § 2722(a). Section 2721(b) is the first of two sections central to this case. It lists the fourteen permissible uses that are exceptions to the general rule prohibiting obtainment and disclosure of drivers' personal information. Those uses are:
(1) For use by any government agency, including any court or law enforcement 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.
(2) For use in connection with matters of motor vehicle or driver safety and theft; motor vehicle emissions; motor vehicle product alterations, recalls, or advisories; performance monitoring of motor vehicles, motor vehicle parts and dealers; motor vehicle market research activities, including survey research; and removal of non-owner records from the original owner records of motor vehicle manufacturers.
(3) For use in the normal course of business by a legitimate business or its agents, employees, or contractors, but only—
(A) to verify the accuracy of personal information submitted by the individual to the business or its agents, employees, or contractors; and
(B) if such information as so submitted is not correct or is no longer correct, to obtain the correct information, but only for the purposes of preventing fraud by, pursuing legal remedies against, or recovering on a debt or security interest against, the individual.
(4) For use in connection with any civil, criminal, administrative, or arbitral proceeding in any Federal, State, or local court or agency or before any self-regulatory body, including the service of process, investigation in anticipation of litigation, and the execution or enforcement of judgments and orders, or pursuant to an order of a Federal, State, or local court.
(5) For use in research activities, and for use in producing statistical reports, so long as the personal information is not published, redisclosed, or used to contact individuals.
(6) For use by any insurer or insurance support organization, or by a self-insured entity, or its agents, employees, or contractors, in connection with claims investigation activities, antifraud activities, rating or underwriting.
(7) For use in providing notice to the owners of towed or impounded vehicles.
(8) For use by any licensed private investigative agency or licensed security service for any purpose permitted under this subsection.
(9) For use by an employer or its agent or insurer to obtain or verify information relating to a holder of a commercial driver's license that is required under chapter 313 of title 49.
(10) For use in connection with the operation of private toll transportation facilities.
(11) For any other use in response to requests for individual motor vehicle records if the State has obtained the express consent of the person to whom such personal information pertains.
(12) For bulk distribution for surveys, marketing or solicitations if the State has obtained the express consent of the person to whom such personal information pertains.
(13) For use by any requester, if the requester demonstrates it has obtained the written consent of the individual to whom the information pertains.
(14) For any other use specifically authorized under the law of the State that holds the record, if such use is related to the operation of a motor vehicle or public safety.
18 U.S.C. § 2721(b).
The second section in dispute provides that an “authorized recipient” may resell driver's license information under certain limited circumstances:
(c) Resale or redisclosure.—An authorized recipient of personal information (except a recipient under subsection (b)(11) or (12)) may resell or redisclose the information only for a use permitted under subsection (b) ( ). An authorized recipient under subsection (b)(11) may resell or redisclose personal information for any purpose. An authorized recipient under subsection (b)(12) may resell or redisclose personal information pursuant to subsection (b)(12). Any authorized recipient (except a recipient under subsection (b)(11)) that resells or rediscloses personal information covered by this chapter must keep for a period of 5 years records identifying each person or entity that receives information and the permitted purpose for which the information will be used and must make such records available to the motor vehicle department upon request.
18 U.S.C. § 2721(c).
The majority of courts reading these sections have concluded that they permit wholesale resellers to obtain in bulk every driver's personal information so long as there is no evidence of specific misuse. See, e.g., Taylor v. Acxiom Corp., 612 F.3d 325 (5th Cir.2010). In other words, a reseller is not limited to obtaining personal information only for a specific customer qualified to use it by the DPPA, nor need the reseller itself have a right to the information under one of the fourteen exceptions to the DPPA's rule of nondisclosure. In addition, the information can be sold in bulk to purchasers, even though the purchaser is only authorized under the DPPA to receive one piece of information. For example, according to the reasoning of Taylor and the majority of courts, since the DPPA permits drivers license information to be disclosed “for use in providing notice to the owners of towed or impounded vehicles”, 18 U.S.C. § 2721(b)(7), a Cabool, Missouri, tow truck operator may obtain the entire license database, including highly restricted personal information such as social security numbers, because one day the tow truck operator might need a single piece of information from the database. The majority of courts reason that so long as the private information is not actually used in a “prohibited” manner there is no violation of the DPPA. Yet the DPPA never explicitly lists any prohibited uses; rather, it generally prohibits all but the fourteen permissible uses enumerated in section 2721(b).
Having reviewed the language of the DPPA and its legislative history, the Court concludes that Congress did not intend the DPPA to authorize this widespread dissemination of private information untethered from the very uses that Congress listed in the DPPA.
Defendant Worldwide, a wholly owned subsidiary of LocatePlus Holdings Corp., is in the business of purchasing for resale state motor vehicle and driver's license records. Worldwide obtains motor vehicle and driver's license records from states such as Massachusetts, Maine, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Missouri. Not all states grant companies like Worldwide such broad access to these department of motor vehicle (“DMV”) records.
Worldwide began receiving DMV records from Missouri in 1999, and its last request for such information was in late 2009 and was for the entire Missouri driver's license database. The data file acquired by Defendant from the Missouri Department of Revenue (“DOR”) included Missouri drivers' names, addresses, height, weight, eye color, organ donor information, driver's license numbers, and some social security numbers. [Doc. # 48, Ex. 3.] Following the filing of this suit, Worldwide now runs a query searching for nine-digit numbers to identify social security numbers, which it eliminates from the information it sells to its customers. Since March 2010, after receipt of the Missouri DMV records and prior to resale, Worldwide has eliminated all social security numbers from the information resold.
In order to receive access to Missouri's DMV records, a Form 4678, “Request for Security Access,” must be completed, signed, and submitted to the Missouri DOR for review. Form 4678 states: “A record holder's photograph, social security number, and medical or disability information may only be obtained for use 1) by any government agency in carrying out its functions,” as well as in three other limited circumstances, consistent with the DPPA.1 [Doc. # 48, Ex. 4.] On at least one Form 4678 that it submitted to the State of Missouri, Defendant Worldwide represented that it was “seeking information ... [a]s a government agency (federal, state, or local) or employed by such.” Id. Shannon Civitarese, Defendant's representative, has testified that Worldwide is not a...
To continue reading
Request your trial- M.A. v. Vill. Voice Media Holdings, LLC
-
Gershzon v. Meta Platforms, Inc.
... ... element of the statute.”); Wiles v. Worldwide ... Info., Inc ., 809 F.Supp.2d 1059, 1081 (W.D. Mo. 2011) ... (“The ... ...
-
LifeScience Techs. v. Mercy Health
... ... Services Inc., (collectively, Mercy) and Myia Labs, ... Inc.'s motions to ... enrichment claims.” Wiles v. Worldwide Info., ... Inc ., 809 F.Supp.2d 1059, 1083 (W.D. Mo ... ...
-
Wilcox v. Swapp, : 2:17-CV-275-RMP
...applies to the first element of a DPPA claim because of the commas that offset the rest of the statute. See Wiles v. Worldwide Info., Inc., 809 F. Supp. 2d 1059, 1081 (W.D. Mo. 2011) ("The only reason to use commas to isolate the clause 'from a motor vehicle record' is toconfine the adverb ......