Plain (Dealer) hypocrisy: 'Jeers' to privacy theft
By Chad D. Baus
The Associated Press reported recently that motorists in Ohio and five other states are suing a company that sends advertising in vehicle registration notices, saying it violates a federal law that protects their personal information.
From the story:
- Massachusetts-based Imagitas has a contract in Ohio and other states to mail vehicle registration notices. The company inserts an advertisement before sending the notices to millions of drivers.
The practice is an apparent loophole in Ohio's 2000 Driver Privacy Protection Act, which allows drivers to shield personal data, such as names and addresses, from being disclosed by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to commercial mailers for surveys, marketing or solicitations.
For those who appreciate irony, there is plenty cast by knowledge of the Ohio General Assembly passing a Driver Privacy Protection Act just three years before opening concealed handgun licenseholders' records up to the media. But that irony pales in comparison to the heaping pile that can be found by reading the Cleveland Plain Dealer's treatment of this lawsuit news.
Click 'Read More' for the entire commentary.
In an editorial column weekly entitled Cheers & Jeers, in which the newspaper offers its two cents on recent headlines, the Plain Dealer had this to say:
- JEERS...
to Imagitas Inc., which does the necessary work of sending registration renewal notices to Ohio vehicle owners, but then uses the personal data it gets from the state to send Ohioans junk mail. The Driver Privacy Protection Act, passed by the General Assembly in 2000, prohibits the state from sharing Ohioans' data with commercial mailers. This one is wrongly taking advantage of its unique position, and the state should put a stop to it.
Did you catch that? The Plain Dealer is criticizing a company for "wrongly taking advantage of its unique position" to access private, personal information.
I'd like to thank these elitist hypocrites for offering me a new phrase to describe the way they have "wrongly taken advantage of [their] unique position" as a media entity to access the list of concealed handgun license-holders and compromise people's privacy by publishing their personal information.
And as they are fully aware, the state has just recently acted to try and put a stop to it. But only time will tell whether or not HB9, the first attempt to fix the media access loophole, will be enough of a clarification as to the General Assembly's intent in giving journalists limited access to the records.
With people at the Plain Dealer who have such a penchant for missing the obvious and opening doors into their own faces, I won't hold my breath.
FLASHBACK: State sold Ohioans’ driving records to Florida database
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