Northwest Fishing Reports

Today I received a notice in the mail telling me that I was, yet again, a victim of a fishing license data breach. All the
info on my DL had been compromised. My age, height, weight, address...everything. probably even my
SS number as well. This is the fourth time I've had my data stolen. It's beyond ridiculous.

What's most upsetting to me is that I have ALWAYS felt they ask for way too much info for just a fishing license, but
I like to fish so I comply. As I'm reading the letter, it turns out that it's NOT the state of Wa that is gathering this
information, but a subcontractor in Texas! Now this just pisses me off. Why cant this be done in state? Why do they need
all my personal information, and who is responsible for keeping it safe?

Has anyone else received this same letter? This is irresponsible on the part of Washington and it's contractors and they need
to be held to account. I guess I'm looking for ideas. Letters to Olympia? March? Class action Lawsuit? This company covers fishing licenses in three states, that's a lot of fishermen whose lives may be turned upside down because they never thought a buying a fishing license could open you up to identity theft
.
If anyone has ideas other than just sucking it up, I'm all ears. Certainly there is someone on this board who can help all of us.


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They said it was for on-line purchase only.

Yes it was from the original breach of an online retailer. There was only one that they've owned up to. Well, let me elaborate on "Online". Fred Meyer or any other retailer is "Online" with the State so it could be from anywhere. I got notices for my wife, grandson and myself. And we've only purchased from FM and one other retailer. It's just awesome how the State protects us. Another lame lifelockish program for a couple years. My SSN is for life as is my name.

Lampwick hit the nail on the head--the only way to protect information is to not collect it in the first place. Every system is vulnerable to attack as we've seen countless times over the past few years. When its just a name and credit card number, there's not a whole lot of longlasting damage. But when they have name, address, SSN, children and spouses (linked by same address) then the likelihood of significant problems increases. Its interesting that SSN was an apparent requirement from the subcontractor--I usually only see this with the government.

Probably blowing in the wind, but I think our government needs to know how we feel about this data collection and use. And I plan to tell them. (Don't get me started on how much info we need to fill in to just fill out the online crab catch card.)

I feel that the state should lower their pricing of the license for those who purchased this year. Its a very small way to compensate us.

racfish wrote:I feel that the state should lower their pricing of the license for those who purchased this year. Its a very small way to compensate us.

Don't hold your breath........