Matzie Bill Addresses Privacy Concerns of State Transportation Plan
By Larissa Dudkiewicz
Pennsylvania drivers and vehicle owners may soon be protected from having third parties profit from sales of personal transportation data.
State Rep. Rob Matzie has introduced a bill that would prohibit third parties from selling personal driver and vehicle information obtained from PennDOT for profit.
"In November, the transportation bill created a loophole that allows third parties to profit off the sale of driver and vehicle information," Matzie, D-Ambridge, said in a news release. "Selling data when consumers are paying for services from the government is bad policy."
The transportation funding plan (Act 89 of 2013) gave PennDOT the authority to sell personal data such as information on drivers, registrations, titles and security interests to other individuals and businesses.
The act also gave those third parties the authority to resell that information for an unspecified fee and without the payment of any additional fee to PennDOT.
Matzie's bill, H.B. 2121, introduced on Tuesday, would prohibit third parties from reselling information obtained from PennDOT and would also prohibit PennDOT from using any funds generated from the sale of driver and vehicle information to be used for the maintenance, redesign or hosting of any state websites, a news release states.
The transportation plan gave PennDOT the option to impose an additional $2 fee on the sale of driver and vehicle information. Funds generated from that fee are currently allocated to providing for the commonwealth's web services, according to a news release.
"The state constitution makes this issue pretty clear," Matzie said. "Transportation funds are not supposed to be used on anything but transportation projects. My bill would bring the transportation plan in line with already existing state law."
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