A court in the US has ordered the payment because it said that
the bank had violated the Drivers Privacy Protection Act. That
federal law was enacted in order to protect drivers from being
tracked down through their driving records.
The law was based on a Californian state law which was passed
after the actress Rebecca Schaeffer was killed by an obsessed fan
who tracked her down through driving records.
James Kehoe sued the bank for its purchase of the records, which
he said it used to market car loans to drivers in Florida. EPIC
joined the suit at a later date.
A district court in Florida found that Kehoe had to prove actual
damage to him before he could be awarded financial damages. He
appealed that decision and won.
Kehoe's class action lawsuit said that Fidelity Federal Bank and
Trust had managed to purchase the data over a three year period to
2003 for just $5,656. EPIC filed a 'friend of the court' brief in
support of Kehoe's case.
"A narrow interpretation of the DPPA that does not award
liquidated damages would create a risk that commercial data brokers
will continue to acquire and resell personal information from motor
vehicle records," said EPIC's brief. "Similarly, a private
investigator might continue to access motor vehicle records unless
there is a strong default punishment. Plaintiffs, unless they
manufacture losses, face hurdles in showing that merely accessing
the motor vehicle record or receiving junk mail constitutes an
actionable harm.
"What people suffer from the unauthorized distribution of their
private information is a privacy violation of a nature so elusive
to quantify that it explains the DPPA's provision of a fixed
minimum sum as appropriate compensation," said the brief.
EPIC argued that unless there were financial damages awarded,
the DPPA's usefulness as an anti-stalker law would be hampered.
"Without liquidated damages, an individual whose personal
information was purchased by a stalker or potential attacker would
not be entitled to recovery until they were actually harmed," it
said.
