GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — If you have a license or own a vehicle, the odds are good your data has been sold by the state of Michigan.
Through what's called the Bulk Information Sale Program, the Michigan Secretary of State's Office sells its records to companies and researchers across the country. But the sales come with a big warning: State and federal laws make it a crime to use the information for sales or marketing.
"Some of the big data aggregators such as LexisNexis use this," SOS spokesman Fred Woodhams said. "Insurance companies will buy that to verify a person's driving record."
Information from the SOS can be sold in small amounts, like for an employer looking to check an employee's driving record, or in bulk. The entire available database costs $260,000. It can be updated monthly for an additional cost. Among the data available is information about drivers, personal identification card holders, vehicle registrations and titles, watercraft registrations and titles, and snowmobile registrations.
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