A privacy suit against Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions was removed to federal court last week, six weeks after it was originally filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County. The complaint was filed by several Chicago-area activists, who are objecting to Lexis Nexus’s bulk sale of personally identifiable data, specifically regarding the sale of this information to law enforcement agencies.
Lexis Nexis offers data available to purchase, the company claims the information is 99% accurate, and that there are 276 million so-called “Lexis IDs.” Put into context, there are just over 258 million American adults, according to the 2020 census.
While the complaint alleges issues with the sale of this information generally, it is notable that government agencies are often able to purchase information that others would not be able to. For example, license plate scanner information can provide a tremendous amount of insight into an individual’s whereabouts. However, this appears to only be offered to law enforcement agencies.