Americans are all too aware that foreign and malicious actors are continually harvesting our personal data through a multitude of schemes and scams with the aim of defrauding as many victims as they can.
We expect our government to help protect us against such risks — to help safeguard the privacy of our data and hold accountable those who would seek to do us harm.
Unfortunately, however, many states have sold us out — literally, in fact.
Government agencies are selling our personal private data without our consent.
In Indiana, our state Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) harvested the data of its customers — all the unwitting Hoosiers who are required to provide personal private data to the agency — and sold it to various third-party entities.
It’s been a sweet deal for the BMV.
The agency collected $26 million off this practice in 2023 alone.
Over the past 10 years, the state has collected in excess of $250 million from the BMV selling customer personal information. And most Hoosiers had no idea.
As attorney general for Indiana, I was proud to stand up to criminals who profit from identity theft and data breaches. I took civil actions against a number of private companies — including a lawsuit against Equifax for a data breach resulting that affected 3.9 million Hoosiers. We settled with Equifax for nearly $20 million.
The sale of private, personal data by the government is an egregious breach of trust. We are only now learning exactly how much money the government has made off our data over the years — and it gets more startling by the day.
During several recent speaking engagements, I have brought up the BMV’s racket. Audiences are shocked at first — and then angry at the prospect of their state cavalierly selling off their data.
How is this any different from a data breach at a private company that puts millions of Americans at risk? Once this private information is sold and out of the government’s hands, there is no accountability for what happens to the data or where it goes.
At a time when the threat to our national security is at an all-time high and artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to maliciously manipulate the truth, Americans deserve to know that their government is protecting them. And they certainly deserve to know their government is not actively making things worse just to make a buck.
Your privacy and peace of mind should not be sold. You and your families should not be put in graver danger by a state agency’s reckless and uncaring policies.
In Indiana, our Republican governor and Republican-led general assembly are ignoring the privacy interests of hardworking Hoosiers. They are getting drunk on dollar signs — intoxicated by the prospect of how much money can be made by sticking it to the citizens they are supposed to serve.
This is not an issue Republicans should be surrendering to our political opponents. We should not be leaving it to Big Government Democrats to write the legislation that would stop government misuse of our private data.
I’m running for governor, and when I’m in the office, I will sign an executive order on day one prohibiting the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and all other state agencies from selling the personal, private data of Hoosiers without their consent.
Other states must follow suit, or else our national security will be at even greater risk.
It’s time to relieve the foxes of their henhouse-protection duties.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.