PennDOT Making Millions Of Dollars A Year Selling Drivers' Data
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Websites, like Facebook, are not the only ones making money by selling your information. Eyewitness News has found PennDOT is making tens of millions of dollars every year by selling drivers' data.
Since 2016, PennDOT made nearly $90 million selling driver's information, like your name, address and up to 10 years of traffic violations.
PennDOT uses the money to fix roads and for mass transit.
And PennDOT officials say the information is sold to insurance providers and background check companies.
"More of what the entities are looking for are citations, DUIs, those sorts of things," said Alexis Campbell, a spokesperson for PennDOT.
But some of the companies that buy the data from PennDOT then resell it.
"It's qualified data, it's what we called validated data, so it's very valuable data," said
Cybercrime expert Robert D'Ovidio says third parties reselling driver's information could make protecting the info difficult.
"When we sell it to third parties and then they go on and sell it, then that person goes and sell it, then we start getting into uses where it's not intended, where it goes beyond what the customer, what you and I, expect to be done to our data," said D'Ovidio.
The cybercrime expert also says third parties reselling driver's data is similar to the Facebook privacy scandal involving Cambridge Analytica. The difference is, unlike Facebook, PennDOT audits the companies that it sells our information to.
In one audit, a company called Sterling Infosystems had "inadequate security" and an "inaccurate customer listing."
Another audit shows LexisNexis had a "lack of customer safeguards to ensure security."
Both companies responded in the audits that they've taken steps to rectify the problems. You can read each of the audits obtained by Eyewitness News:
CLICK HERE for Sterling Infosystems Audit
CLICK HERE for LexisNexis Audit
CLICK HERE American Driving Records Audit
CLICK HERE Explore Information Service Audit
CLICK HERE Insurance Services Office Audit
CLICK HERE TML Information Services Audit
An official with PennDOT added that since the state agency started selling driver's data less than a decade ago, it has not found anyone's information compromised.
"Part of what the audit does is it give us a mechanism to help keep track of how the companies are managing that data," said Alexis Campbell, PennDOT's Community Relations Coordinator.
Each wholeseller that buys the data is required to sign an affidavit, which includes rules in how the information is handled.
