(Liz Klimas) Could your parking ticket left under the wiper on your windshield reveal too much information about you? A U.S. appeals court thinks so and has ruled against a Chicago suburb‘s police department that disclosed the vehicle owner’s name, address, gender and more on the ticket.
According to Wired, the case itself dates back to 2010 when Jason Senne from Palatine Village, Ill., decided to sue the police department for the information appearing on his parking ticket as violating the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ majority opinion issued by Judge Kenneth Ripple stated that including personal information like his full name, address, driver’s license number, date of birth, sex, height and weight present “very real safety and security concerns at stake here”:
For example, an individual seeking to stalk or rape can go down a street where overnight parking is banned and collect the home address and personal information of women whose vehicles have been tagged. He can ascertain the name, exact address including the apartment number and even other information such as sex, age, height and weight pertinent to his nefarious intent. Similarly, a
public official, having gone to great lengths to protect himself and his family from the threat of violence that unfortunately every public official faces, bears the risk that an expired parking meter violation might provide an opportunity for an individual intent on causing the official or his family bodily harm or death.
