MO Motor Vehicle Offices Ordered To Stop Scanning and Storing Personal Documents

And they have to destroy existing data

With a surprising stroke of his pen, Gov. Jay Nixon enacted a law Monday that stops license offices from scanning and storing applicants' personal information.

The practice of requesting such documents as birth certificates and passports had raised the ire of the Missouri populace concerned their privacy rights were being violated. Republican legislators accused Nixon's administration of trying to comply with the federal REAL ID Act, which state law expressly forbids, but his staff said they were trying to prevent fraud.

Nixon signed Senate Bill 252, which prohibits the state revenue department from retaining source documents used to apply for driver's licenses and requires them to destroy previously gathered documents.

The DOR had been building a state database of that information in Jefferson City, with the information gathered from about 150 license offices across Missouri. The department stopped collecting certain information from concealed carry weapon applicants in April, but continued to gather the data from license applicants.