The Expert Podcast

The recent activity regarding Tesla owners being attacked and being doxed online by activists brings up an important legal point. And you have to remember, you know, we're not attorneys. We're not giving you legal advice, but there is a federal statute, a federal law, US code 2721, that prohibits the release of information about motor vehicle records. And this is a federal law that started in 1993. So, the ownership records of a vehicle, the name and address of an owner, can't be released to third parties. So now that there's a database out there of Tesla owners being distributed to kind of encourage people to go bother them, at least, the question is, where did this information come from? There's only certain ways you can get this information. You have to get it from the government, from the DMV, and you can access it using certain permissible uses.

I believe at some point somebody's going to investigate and find out how this information was released and who got it. Because here's what's prohibited. State Department of Motor Vehicles. Any officer or employee shall not disclose personal information about any individual in connection with motor vehicle records. So it's very clear the DMV can't release it, and that's the only place this exists. There are some permissible uses that are exceptions from the use. They have to do with if a government agency needs it, if it has to do with motor vehicle safety, for example, recalls.

Be used by a permissible use of a legitimate business. Here's where the problem came from. Somebody probably bought the list from a business that said they were using it for a permissible use and then redistributed it to these activists. The question is going to come up: how did this happen? And somebody's going to get in trouble behind this. Whether or not you agree or disagree with what's happening, it doesn't matter. It's just that this law is very specific.

And here's why the law was created in the first place. There was a stalker in California in the 1980s who was obsessed with an actress, and he wanted to know where she lived. So, he wrote down her license plate on her car and the VIN number from the dashboard and did a search through the DMV records to find out her address. He went to her house, knocked on the door, and talked to her, but she rejected him. So, he killed her. After that, they made motor vehicle records protected, and for good reason.

For example, if you're driving down the street and maybe you cut somebody off accidentally or somebody doesn't like how you're driving, if somebody could just write down your license plate or even your VIN number from your dashboard in a parking lot if you parked crooked, they could come knocking on your door. You probably wouldn't want that. So, this is a very good law. At some point, somebody's going to backtrack where these records came from. And maybe it was an innocent company that just sold these records, not knowing they were going to be used for this, but someone's going to get in trouble over it.

Let us know in the comments what you think about this law and whether or not it should actually protect people's ownership information. Thank you for watching another episode of Actual Human Advisory on Describe TV.

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