The agreement requires the companies to adopt a "Protecting Drivers' Data" program, where each company will
:
Tom Loffredo, a spokesperson for the companies, issued the following statement in connection with the settlement
:
"This agreement provides millions of drivers with enhanced safeguards to help ensure that their personal information obtained from DMV records will not be used for marketing purposes."
"All sides recognized that federal law strikes an important balance between protecting the rights of individuals while at the same time allowing DMV information to be used for important purposes. Information obtained from DMVs can help to locate missing persons, facilitate auto safety recalls, assist civil and criminal investigators, aid researchers and statisticians, and assist in fraud detection and prevention."
"Today's agreement provides an additional level of consumer protection by requiring an independent third party's review of the companies' DPPA compliance programs and seven years of oversight by a federal judge."
"Everyone agrees that no one should have their driver's information used for marketing purposes without their consent."
Tod Aronovitz and John Yanchunis issued the following statement on behalf of the plaintiffs
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"This agreement creates tough new rules to put in place a set of best practices at some of the largest information service providers in order to make sure personal details from DMV data collected on millions of Americans are not used for marketing purposes. We feel this agreement accomplishes our goal of protecting consumers' rights."
"Under the agreement, consumers who can show they were actually harmed from any impermissible use or disclosure of DMV information will still have the right to bring their own individual lawsuits for actual damages."
"We are hopeful the court will preliminarily approve this agreement which requires these companies to go above and beyond what the law requires."
"This was a classic mediation involving great lawyers and their clients, all of whom committed themselves to making a difference in the area of consumer privacy."
More Background
Three years ago, several individuals filed a suit asserting that the companies violated a federal law known as the Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA). The law prohibits knowingly obtaining, using or disclosing personal information obtained from DMVs for purposes not permitted under the Act.
The class action complaint, which was filed on behalf of all Floridians with information held by
Under the agreement, the defendants deny that their practices for obtaining, using or disclosing DPPA-regulated information were insufficient or impermissible under the law .
The proposed agreement seeks to expand the statewide class into a nationwide class. The proposed class includes all persons whose DPPA-regulated information was obtained, used or disclosed by any of the settling defendants from
Upon approval of the settlement, all class members will waive any claim for statutory liquidated damages under the DPPA, but will reserve the right to later file individual lawsuits if they suffered any actual damages .
The settling defendants include Automotive Directions, Inc.; Experian Information Solutions, Inc.; ChoicePoint Public Records Inc.; ChoicePoint Inc.; ChoicePoint Precision Marketing Inc.; ChoicePoint Services Inc.; KnowX LLC; Seisint, Inc.; Reed Elsevier Inc.; and eFunds Corporation.
copyright 2006 DPPA
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