All your Ohioans are belong to us

[Major Variola (ret.)]

Report: Ohio Sold Records To Fla. Database Company For $50K

POSTED: 6:56 pm EST March 14, 2004

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The state Bureau of Motor Vehicles sold driving
records of Ohioans for about $50,000 to a Florida company developing a
multistate crime database program, according to a report.

The program, called Matrix, lets states share information and
cross-reference the data with up to 20 billion records in databases held
by Seisint Inc., a private company based in Boca Raton, Fla.

Bureau of Motor Vehicles spokeswoman Julie Hinds told The Columbus
Dispatch that Seisint paid Ohio $50,073 between October 2002 and
December 2003.

Hinds said the company signed an agreement not to misuse the
information.

Twelve states that had expressed interest or were involved in the
program have pulled out. Connecticut, Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania
are still participating.

A spokesman for state Attorney General Jim Petro, who supports the
system, said the information Ohio is sharing is already available to law
enforcement.

"There's nothing novel here. It's just the speed at which it's done,"
said James V. Canepa, chief deputy attorney general.

The records include details on property, boats and Internet domain names
that people own, their address history, utility connections,
bankruptcies, liens and business filings, according to an August report
by the Georgia state Office of Homeland Security.

The American Civil Liberties Union has complained that the system,
formally known as Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, could
be used by state and federal investigators to compile dossiers on people
who have never been suspected of a crime.

Seisint officials have said safeguards are built into the system to
prevent such abuses.

Ohio and other states have been given releases stating they won't be
liable for mistakes if data from the system contain errors.

The ACLU has filed a number of public records requests in Ohio and other
states to get more details.

"Accuracy on this seems to be poor at best," said Carrie Davis, an
attorney with the ACLU of Ohio. "We have no idea what these records
are."

Gov. Bob Taft is reviewing to what extent Ohio should be involved.

"We are reviewing various legal issues and also long-term cost
implications," Taft spokesman Orest Holubec said.

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