Texas Government Sells Birthdate Info to Private Businesses

According to the Dallas Morning News, the Texas Department of Public Safety is in the business of selling Texas drivers' information to private companies. 

The DMN article reports that "private companies spent nearly $50 million during the last fiscal year buying the data, including dates of birth, from the Texas Department of Public Safety. In some cases, companies buy the data for all 21 million Texas drivers at once and receive weekly updates. Buyers include insurance companies, country clubs, pizza delivery companies, collection agencies, utilities and driving schools."

Apparently, Texas isn't alone. I did a little research and see that Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa and others all sell resident drivers' license information to the private sector. I found an article from 2006 in which Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch was aiming to stop the sale of driver's license information. But I couldn't find any follow-up to it.

Those in favor say...

Proponents of this practice cite the benefits of having access to this private data: Car insurance companies can process claims more efficiently; car companies can contact people about a recall fix using the data. They argue that the problem isn't that the DPS is legally allowed to sell the data to certain groups who use it legitimately, it's that the information gets leaked and resold to identity thieves and other fraudsters. 

What law allows this practice?

Did anyone know this was happening? Under what law is this okay? And more importantly, is there some way to opt out of this?

This issue came up in the news because there is currently a law on the table seeking to keep the birthdates of state workers private. So on one hand, the government is selling our information to private companies, and on the other, Texas lawmakers want to pass legislation that keeps government worker information, such as date of birth, off public records. A major double standard.