U. Wisconsin: COLUMN: Wis. state transportation dept. violates privacy (C) 2007 The Daily Cardinal Via U-WIRE

By Marcie Benson, The Daily Cardinal (U. Wisconsin)

MADISON, Wis. -- Imagine if your personal information -- name, home address, e-mail address -- became public knowledge. Despite increased vigilance regarding identity theft, it has now been revealed the Wisconsin Department of Transportation makes money by selling your information to various organizations.

What about your Social Security number? Last year the state inadvertently released 170,000 Social Security numbers, raising many questions and proving the state is not infallible in its role as guardian of our personal information.

Despite many practical functions this program addresses, it is filled with dubious undertones and infringes upon the privacy rights of citizens. Moreover, there are other negative aspects, from macro-level inefficiency to epic blunders (see Social Security number release), making this system ripe not only for corruption but also severe damage. Ultimately, the state should not profit from information that is fundamentally not its property to sell.

These state actions are not completely egregious, as there are some neutral if not beneficial purposes. In some cases, such as for the purpose of tracking persons owing child support, this measure is completely legitimate and wholly necessary. Other sales of information to enterprises such as insurance companies and funeral homes have no inherently detrimental results. Additionally, this program thus far has not been rife with scandal, as there are special conditions that must be met in order to buy information without the person's consent.

In spite of these apparent successes, the erosion of our personal privacies overshadows the many positive qualities it possesses. The purpose of a government is to serve its citizens, not vice versa. When individual rights are sacrificed for the government's benefit, it sows the seeds of discontent within its citizens and provides opportunities for abuse of power.

Also, the state has intentionally failed to openly inform its citizens of its role as trafficker of personal information. Even though citizens have the option of taking their names off the list of saleable information, they have remained in the dark, effectively blocking them from taking action to stop it and negating all choice in the matter.

Furthermore, the very dangerous risk of careless accidents, such as the aforementioned release of Social Security numbers, exacerbates our existing fear of identity theft.

Identity theft not only takes its toll on its victims by ruining their credit scores for at least two years and costing them thousands of dollars to remedy the situation, but it negatively affects society as a whole. If identity theft victims' monies are being funneled into resolving their misfortune, then that is less money being spent improving the overall economy.

In addition, the sale of e-mail addresses has the potential to be extremely problematic, especially for businesses. Spam has already caused companies and individuals to be less efficient in their Internet usage by clogging up mailboxes with frivolous advertisements. Although this may not sound like a pressing issue, if spread widely enough, mere minutes of wasted time may add up to thousands of dollars in losses for enterprises and hours of wasted time for individuals in the long run.

In the end, the government has the responsibility to protect individual rights and to inform its citizens of matters directly concerning them. In this case the government has failed on both accounts, hence an overhaul of this program is necessary in order to protect and inform individuals.