Personal privacy is important in this age of technology
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Ever wonder what the magnetic strip on the back of your driver’s license says about you? Rest assured, it isn’t going to be sensitive information. Legislation signed last week by Gov. Bob Holden strictly prohibits the Department of Revenue from collecting or disseminating certain personal information.
Personal privacy is important in this age of technology, and the legislature took an important step here to preserve individual privacy. The new law specifically prohibits the Department of Revenue from encoding personal information beyond what is absolutely necessary for law enforcement purposes and information that has been approved by the Missouri General Assembly.
With the decision of what is allowed and what’s not on driver’s licenses in the hands of the legislature, the public will ultimately decide what and how much individual information they want on their drivers’ licenses.
This legislation was introduced after we became aware of a driver’s license encoding conference held last year. During that conference, participants talked about the capabilities of encoding information that could include everything from your banking records to your DNA right on the back of your driver’s license.
This new law establishes the foundation of what is acceptable information to collect and place on your driver’s license. That information is the basic descriptive information of address, birth date, height, weight and eye color. But, at the same time, this law will let the legislature determine if other information, such as medical records, should go on your license.
The new law goes into effect on Aug. 28.