Colorado Sales Of Public Data To Marketers Can Mean Big $$ For Governments
Colorado Sales Of Public Data To Marketers Can Mean Big $$ For
Governments
August 26, 2013 10:00 PM
DENVER (CBS4) – Roughly 60 percent of the mail we get can
be classified as junk mail, but sometimes that flood of mail seems nonstop, and
the pitches are often unsettlingly specific. This tends to happen particularly
after major life events.
A CBS4 Investigation has uncovered that government
agencies at all levels are selling personal information to marketing companies.
Eric Meer is a small business owner who works out of his
home in Denver’s Stapleton neighborhood. Meer says he was deluged by direct
mail after registering his small business with the Colorado Secretary of State.
He says many of the ads he received were deceptive asking him to pay fees that
he wasn’t required to pay.
Meer had a hunch the Secretary of State was selling his
business information to marketing companies. CBS4 confirmed his hunch was
right. Last year, the Secretary of State brought in $59,000 for business
registration data.
“It feels like a betrayal,” Meer said. “Because our
government is supposed to protect us, not to sell our information and profit
from us.”
Spokesperson Andrew Cole confirms the Secretary of State
sells business information for monetary amounts ranging from $200 to $12,000,
depending on frequency and amount of information requested. But, Cole says the
fees only cover the costs of running the databases.
“We are not looking to make money,” said Cole. “We charge
to cover our costs.”
According to Cole, there is no way to opt out of these
lists and anyone can buy them, even scammers. There is no screening process.
“It’s a public database,” Cole said. He said it’s “meant
to be public” and part of running a transparent government.
The Secretary of State also sold voter registration
information — including names, addresses and political party affiliation of
voters — for $58,000, last year.
Do you ever notice a surge of confusing mail after
refinancing, a foreclosure, or buying a house? The Denver Clerk and Recorder
made $32,000 last year selling home sale data.
It happens in college, too. The University of Colorado
Boulder buys names from the SAT for 33 cents each and names from the ACT for 34
cents each for recruiting purposes. CU sells student information to private
meal plans and storage companies for $15,000 a year.
Even death is for sale. The Social Security Administration
sells a “Master Death Index” for 7,500 each. The result, an onslaught of
letters to surviving family members asking to purchase a home.
Local marketer Becky Seely has purchased lists in the
past and says it’s clear these agencies are catering to marketers.
“What average consumer needs to know the deaths that
happened in the last three months or the new businesses that registered?” asks
Seely.
But she says most of the time we put ourselves on
marketing lists without realizing it. The most common ways our information is
collected and then circulated is when we enter a contest, use a valued customer
shopping card, register a product, subscribe to a magazine or even give money
to a charity.
“It’s kind of an endless black hole of lists,
unfortunately,” Seely said.
The Direct Marketing Association has blocked every state
effort to create a mandatory “do not mail” registry similar to a do not call
list. However, the same group offers its own registry that promises to cut down
on the junk mail you receive.
The Direct Marketing Association says you cannot stop
bills, statements, notices and political mailings. The group also offers a
deceased Do Not Contact list.
Additional Resources
- Visit the Direct Marketing Association website at www.dmachoice.org to help cut down on junk
mail.
- See a list of companies who purchased the Colorado
Secretary of State business data in the past year. (xls file)
- See who bought student information from the University
of Colorado in 2013 in this document. (pdf file)
- See who bought the voter rolls from the Colorado
Secretary of State in 2013. (pdf file)
- Written by Mark Ackerman for CBSDenver.com
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