During holidays, Santa's not the only one making a list
Bar's collection of data raises questions on consumer privacy
BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer

"I have no problem with verifying that the ID is valid, but they have no need to record age, birthday, address, height, eye color. ..." - Assemblyman Bill Baroni

A Trenton bar's misuse of driver's license information has drawn interest from state Assembly members Bill Baroni and Linda Greenstein.

In separate but complementary acts, both District 14 legislators have initiated governmental responses to the bar KatManDu, in Trenton, using the licenses of its patrons to check more than their age. All the information on the licenses, such as height, eye color and address, was stored in a database without the holders' knowledge or consent. The information was then used to send out promotions.

Baroni (R-Middlesex/Mercer), along with Assemblyman Guy Gregg (R-Sussex/ Hunterdon/Morris), announced that they plan to draft legislation preventing this specific misuse of driver's license information from ever happening again. Baroni said that the legislation would specifically focus on driver's licenses, preventing businesses from collecting and using information found on them.

"I want to ... use the hearings to let the public know some of the practices going on right under their noses and then decide from there what to do." - Assembywoman Linda Greenstein

"I have no problem with verifying that the ID is valid, but they have no need to record age, birthday, address, height, eye color - no need for that data collection," said Baroni.

Shortly after the incident, the state Motor Vehicle Commission noted that it has always been illegal to store and use driver's license information the way KatManDu did. Baroni said that the bill would act as a further clarification on the matter. He hopes that a set of hearings planned by Greenstein (D-Middlesex/Mercer) on the same topic will help push it forward.

According to Greenstein, the topic has long interested her. She feels that the incident with the bar was just the impetus that was needed to begin a series of hearings, to be held by the Judiciary Committee, that should start sometime in early December. She also noted that she felt the timing was appropriate for other reasons as well.

"We thought the timing was really good to do this, particularly that it's ... the holiday season, and lots of people will be using credit cards [for purchases] and licenses as ID," said Greenstein.

Secret consumer profiles

The probe will not only focus on the specific issue that sparked them but on personal privacy protection in general. Greenstein said that she is hoping that they will result in ways that will further protect the information of private citizens.

"I guess what it comes down to is there are so many places where we know we don't have privacy, and then there are all these other hidden places where we don't even realize our privacy is being invaded, and we don't have an opportunity to say 'stop this' because we don't even know it's happening," said Greenstein.

According to professionals in the field of identity theft protection, people, especially while shopping, leave behind more of their personal information than they might think. Items such as someone's name, address, phone number, e-mail address, income, preferred brands, what sports they like, what foods they like, whether they're in the middle of remodeling their kitchen, the frequency they go out to dinner and more are stored in large databases that companies use for many purposes, from conducting market research to sending out junk mail. Databases such as this are also what many telemarketers use to find people to call.

According to Linda Foley, of the Identity Theft Resource Center, there are many avenues by which people's information gets into the databases, not the least of which are credit card purchases.

While the use of credit card information for marketing purposes was determined to be illegal in 1998, Foley said that many card companies exploit legal loopholes in order to continue to do so. One example includes ways around the Do Not Call registry.

"If you put your name on the Do Not Call registry, [they will not call you] ... unless you've entered into a business relationship with that entity or company. But when I've entered into [a] contest, or I have bought something from them, I am free game, I opened that door. They did not," said Foley. "They're not just picking you out of the sky."

Caution urged during holidays

The holiday shopping season is also a big time for conventional identity theft, according to Foley. She noted that around the holidays, cases of pickpockets, credit card skimming - when clerks retain your information for later use - mail theft, and other such activities become more common because people tend to make more credit card purchases.

"It's all logical. We're in crowded holiday situations that attract pickpockets, we're using our credit cards more frequently, since we're making lots of purchases, but that means [we're] being exposed a lot more," said Foley.

The Identity Theft Resource Center advises shoppers to keep their credit cards and licenses in their sight and out of others' at all times, to never carry a Social Security card on their person in public, and to think about what they throw out before doing so.

A single piece of information left behind, whether it's written on a comment card or spoken at a register, seems innocuous enough, says David McGuire, director of communications for the Center for Democracy and Technology.

"If you look at any given instance of your information being collected and stored, by itself it's not enough to raise too many concerns. You think, this company knows where I live, that's not the worst thing in the world," said McGuire.

The problems arise when one takes into account the confluence of information collected and cross-referenced from many sources to create a consumer profile of an individual for marketing purposes, McGuire said.

"A pretty solid profile about who I am, where I live, what sorts of things I buy, what sorts of activities I do, what sorts of interests I have, is ... invasive and is ... something we want to understand and control, and that's where the need for this sort of baseline privacy protection comes into place," said McGuire.

Greenstein said that she is not sure what the outcome of the hearings she plans to hold will be, but she hopes that she will be able to learn something to better deal with the amount of information one tends to give away without realizing it.

"I want to pretty much use the hearings to let the public know some of the practices going on right under their noses and then decide from there what do," said Greenstein.