Something to read as we watch the stock go down the tubes.
3 States Curb Sale of Driver License Photos as Security Device
By LISA NAPOLI
A private company's effort to buy driver license photographs and place them in an electronic database has raised serious privacy concerns, prompting three states to backtrack on their decision to sell the data. The company, Image Data of Nashua, N.H., manufactures a fraud-protection device that allows store clerks to verify the identity of a consumer using a driver's license number or Social Security number to call up a digital photograph. The device is being tested in 10 stores in South Carolina, which sold Image Data digital records of 3.5 million driver licenses last year for $5,000.
But after news reports of the sales, officials in South Carolina, along with others in Colorado and Florida, moved to halt the transfer of data to the company.
The South Carolina Attorney General, Charlie Condon, is scheduled to appear in court this morning to ask for a temporary injunction to halt the use of the photographs. Since August, 10 stores in South Carolina have been wired with Image Data's True ID security device.
A spokesman for Condon's office said state officials only recently became aware of the sale.
"Our lawsuit asks for the photos back because the budget proviso that allowed the sale was unconstitutional," said the spokesman, Robb McBurney. "At the last minute you can stick in a lot of things with a budget proviso, and this got in in 1998 with no public scrutiny."
Colorado and Florida have signed contracts with the company. Colorado has delivered 50,000 of the state's 5 million driver licenses, for which it was paid $128,000.
On Monday, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida terminated that state's contract with Image Data after a temporary injunction blocking the transfer of images was issued by a Seminole County judge. Before the injunction, Florida had released 35,000 of the state's 14 million driver license records to the company, and had been paid $140,000 by Image Data for all of the records.
A Colorado State senator, Anthony S. Grampsas, said yesterday that he would introduce legislation to repeal a bill he had sponsored in the Colorado House of Representatives two years ago that allowed the sale of the state's driver license records to Image Data. Gov. Bill Owens of Colorado lobbied for the repeal on Tuesday after the sale of the photographs became public last week.
"It became apparent the public wasn't going to buy off on it," said the Governor's press secretary, Dick Wadhams. "Even though it was Super Bowl weekend, a lot of legislators got hammered pretty hard by their constituents."
The company's founder, Robert Houvener, was in South Carolina yesterday to lobby for his product.
Lorna Christie, vice president of public affairs for Image Data, called the public outcry surrounding True ID a "misunderstanding."
When a digital image is called up by a store clerk, it only stays visible "for seconds," Ms. Christie said. No other personal information is displayed on the screen, she said.
Transmissions between Image Data's computers and the retail store are encrypted to inhibit wiretapping of private information, she added.
Although the device is now built only for check identification purposes, Ms. Christie said it could be expanded to verify credit card purchases, too.
"There's a misperception that we were selling our database to retailers," Ms. Christie said.
"We are using technology to protect customers. Our use of the information is only for identity purposes, not for marketing."
The sale of driver license data is the latest in a growing list of privacy concerns raised by computer technology, which makes information easier to collect and distribute.
"The privacy beast has awakened," said David Banisar, a lawyer with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an advocacy group based in Washington. "People are getting a lot more aware of privacy, because people are trying to collect more information. At the same time, we're not enacting any laws to protect privacy."
Related Sites
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Florida Governor Jeb Bush
South Carolina State Attorney General
Colorado Governor Bill Owens
Electronic Privacy Information Center
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Lisa Napoli at napoli@nytimes.com welcomes your comments and suggestions.
Thursday, February 4, 1999
Copyright 1999 The New York Times |
