If you're a Wisconsin driver, outdoor enthusiast or voter, chances are state government has sold your name, address or other potentially sensitive personal information about you.

State officials say they're legally obligated to make the information public. But privacy advocates say collection and sale of personal information by the state erodes personal privacy and puts people at risk of identity theft - especially in light of the December accidental release of more than 171,000 Social Security numbers by the state Department of Revenue.

Social Security numbers and other personal data are used by criminals for online thefts and purchases charged to others. Even if that doesn't happen, the information the government sells about you can end up in your mailbox, however, as advertising or political campaign material.

"Once a person provides information to the government they surrender control over how that information is used, and possibly how it is abused," said Carole Doeppers, a privacy consultant who was the state's first privacy advocate.

The Department of Transportation sold the names, addresses, driver's license numbers and driving records of nearly 3 million residents in 2006, not including December, which are not available, state records show.

Department of Natural Resources officials last year filled 132 requests for the sale of 273 lists of hunters, fishermen, boaters and others licensed by the agency.

And the state Elections Board last year sold perhaps millions of records on the names, addresses and voting records of registered voters.

An Elections Board spokesman says they're legally required to make that information public. It's the same with the DNR and DOT, but they can allow residents to keep their names off requests for lists containing 10 or more names. The Elections Board doesn't do that except for voters who have a court order.

The officials add that while they are required to collect Social Security numbers they are prohibited from selling them. They have policies designed to protect those numbers and other non-public personal information.

But the mistaken disclosure of Social Security numbers by the Department of Revenue last month raised concerns that even confidential data held by the government could be released, putting residents at risk of identity theft.

The disclosure came after the company printing state tax forms included Social Security numbers on the mailing labels. Meredith Helgerson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Revenue, said the printer was not supposed to print the number on the label. But she also said the department erred in giving the number to the printer, and, she said, it wouldn't do that in the future.

Use of the information

While the release of those numbers was a mistake, the government sells other information about state residents, and companies and individuals use the information for a variety of reasons.

Insurers use driving records to investigate claims or determine accident risks. Candidates for office buy voter records to help them develop mailing lists. And direct marketers purchase lists of outdoor enthusiasts that they then resell them to other businesses.

Ariel Molvig, 28, a waiter and cartoonist from Madison, said he's concerned about the sale of his personal information.

"I'm a little paranoid, and have a bit of a libertarian streak," said Molvig, who was at the Department of Motor Vehicles last week to get a driver's license. "I definitely wouldn't want my personal information sold to solicitors."

Anna Momont, 26, a Madison medical student, said of the sale of personal information: "I don't know if it's something our government should be in the business of."

But Robert Drechsel, a UW-Madison journalism professor, said determining what kind of personal information about state residents should be available to the public and what should be kept private is "a tough balance."

It's not hard to argue that Social Security numbers should be kept private, he said.

On the other hand, "You have to ask yourself, if we know who has fishing licenses, what's the big deal?" he said.

Source