DPPA Permissible Uses: The 13 Categories and Misuse Penalties

The Driver’s Privacy Protection Act sets out 13 permissible uses under which a state motor vehicle department may release your personal information from its records. Passed by Congress in 1994, the law otherwise bars disclosure of the personal details tied to your driver’s license and vehicle registration. If a request doesn’t fit one of the 13 categories, or doesn’t have your consent, the state is not allowed to hand the information over.

What Information the DPPA Actually Covers

The statute protects “personal information” in your motor vehicle record: name, home address (zip code alone is excluded), phone number, driver’s license number, photograph, Social Security number, and medical or disability information.¹ Three of those items, your photograph, SSN, and medical or disability information, are treated as “highly restricted personal information” and generally require your express written or electronic consent before release, even to a requester who otherwise qualifies. The narrow exceptions cover government agencies, legal proceedings, insurance activities, and commercial driver license verification.²

One boundary worth knowing upfront: your driving history itself, meaning accident records, traffic violations, and license status, is not “personal information” under the DPPA. Employers, insurers, and background check services can often obtain that data through channels that sit outside the permissible use framework entirely.

The 13 Permissible Uses

Government Agencies and Law Enforcement

Any federal, state, or local government agency, including courts and law enforcement, can access motor vehicle records to carry out its official functions. Private contractors acting on behalf of a government body qualify under the same provision.³ This is what allows officers to run plates at a traffic stop, investigators to pull registration data during a criminal probe, and courts to locate parties for service or jury duty. Access has to connect to official duties. A government employee who pulls records for personal reasons is exposed to criminal charges, not just internal discipline.

Driver Safety, Vehicle Theft, Emissions, and Recalls

Records can be accessed for matters involving driver safety, vehicle theft, emissions compliance, product recalls, and manufacturer advisories.³ Manufacturers rely on this provision to reach current owners when a defect surfaces; registration data is the only practical way to notify every affected owner. The provision also covers market research tied to vehicle safety and performance monitoring of vehicles, parts, and dealers, but the focus has to stay on the vehicle rather than on profiling the driver.

Business Verification and Fraud Prevention

Businesses can check whether personal information you’ve already submitted to them matches your DMV record, and, if it doesn’t, obtain corrected data for a narrow set of purposes: preventing fraud, pursuing legal remedies, or recovering a debt or security interest.³ A lender can verify the address on a loan application and, if it doesn’t match, pull the correct one to investigate potential fraud. What the lender cannot do is treat that access as a general data collection tool or feed a marketing profile.

Legal Proceedings

Attorneys and litigants can obtain motor vehicle records for use in civil, criminal, administrative, or arbitration proceedings. That includes investigating claims before a suit is filed, serving legal documents, and enforcing judgments.³ A personal injury lawyer identifying the registered owner of a vehicle in a collision, or a judgment creditor locating a debtor’s current address, both fit here. The tie to an actual or reasonably anticipated proceeding is what separates a permissible request from a fishing expedition.

Research and Statistical Reports

Researchers can use motor vehicle data for studies and statistical reports, with a strict limit: the personal information cannot be published, disclosed to others, or used to contact any individual.³ A university studying crash rates by vehicle type could work with registration data but could never publish names or reach out to drivers. The provision is not a blanket pass for data brokers to collect and resell DMV information under a research label.

Insurance

Insurers, insurance support organizations, and self-insured entities can access records for claims investigation, anti-fraud work, and rating or underwriting.³ Auto insurance is the most familiar example, but the provision is not limited to it. An insurer handling a workers’ compensation claim or a liability dispute involving a commercial vehicle can access records under the same provision. Agents, employees, and contractors working for the insurer all qualify.

Towed Vehicles, Licensed Investigators, and Toll Facilities

Three narrower categories cover situations most drivers rarely think about:

The private investigator category deserves a note. Holding a PI license doesn’t create an independent right to any record. The investigator still has to tie the request to one of the other permissible uses, such as pre-litigation investigation or fraud verification. Being a licensed PI is not, by itself, a valid justification.

Commercial Driver Record Checks

Employers can obtain or verify information on employees who hold a commercial driver’s license, as required by federal commercial vehicle safety regulations.³ Trucking companies, bus operators, and other fleet employers use this to check for suspensions, recent violations, or medical disqualifications. The access extends to the employer’s agents and insurers. It does not extend to office employees or other workers who don’t hold a CDL.

Three Consent-Based Provisions

The statute treats consent in three different ways, and the differences matter:

A state can release your personal information in response to an individual request for any purpose, but only if the state has already obtained your express consent, typically through an opt-in on your license or registration paperwork.³
A state can release information in bulk for surveys, marketing, or solicitations, again only with your express state-obtained consent.³
Any requester can access your records for any purpose if they can show they’ve obtained your written consent directly. This is the broadest of the three and covers third-party services or apps that ask you to sign a release.³

What Recipients Can and Cannot Do With the Data

Qualifying for a permissible use does not free the data. Anyone who receives DPPA-protected information can only pass it on to another person who also has a permissible use. Anyone who resells or rediscloses the data must keep records for five years showing who received it and what permissible purpose justified the transfer, and must make those records available to the state motor vehicle department on request.³ Recipients who obtained data through the consent-based bulk distribution provision have more freedom to resell, since the individual already agreed to broader distribution.

What Happens When Someone Misuses Your Record

The DPPA is enforced on two tracks. A person who knowingly violates the statute is subject to federal criminal fines, and a state motor vehicle department with a policy or practice of substantial noncompliance can be assessed a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per day by the U.S. Attorney General.⁴

Separately, if someone knowingly obtains, discloses, or uses your motor vehicle record for a purpose the statute doesn’t permit, you can sue them in federal court. Available remedies include actual damages, with a floor of $2,500 in liquidated damages even if you can’t prove specific losses; punitive damages when the violation involved willful or reckless disregard; and reasonable attorney fees for a winning plaintiff.⁵ The $2,500 minimum is what makes individual suits practical, and in cases involving bulk violations affecting many people the per-person floor produces substantial aggregate exposure.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2725 – Definitions
2
GovInfo. 18 USC Chapter 123 – Prohibition on Release and Use of Certain Personal Information from State Motor Vehicle Records
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2721 – Prohibition on Release and Use of Certain Personal Information from State Motor Vehicle Records
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2723 – Penalties
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2724 – Civil Action