ChoicePoint reveals personal info of 145,000

Talk about chutzpah. ChoicePoint discloses the personal info of 145,000 and their response is to offer the victims a free trial of ChoicePoint services?

From the Washington Post:

As many as 4,500 residents in the District, Maryland and Virginia were among up to 145,000 people whose names, addresses, Social Security numbers and, in some cases, credit files were electronically shipped by ChoicePoint Inc. of Alpharetta, Ga., to people posing as business officials in the Los Angeles area.

Investigators said they think the number of victims will continue to rise as officials learn more about the scheme. At least one lawmaker on Capitol Hill has called for stiffer regulation of commercial data services. This week, others are expected to push for hearings about the information industry.

To control the damage to consumers and the company, ChoicePoint executives over the weekend decided to announce changes in how they assess their clients and maintain security.

Starting today ChoicePoint will offer victims free credit reports and credit-monitoring services for the next year.

UPDATE: More on ChoicePoint here.

ChoicePoint officials said they expect to finish sending out notices by the end of the week. Company officials also said they will curb access to some sensitive information for as many as 17,000 small-business clients, including some lawyers, private investigators and insurance companies, while verifying their legitimacy. Conducting the background checks could take as long as two months, the officials said.

ChoicePoint has become an information giant since it formed in 1997. It has acquired more than 50 other companies and, according to recent figures, has more than 100,000 customers, including most Fortune 500 corporations, local, state and federal law enforcement, and every major federal government agency. The company says it has 19 billion records that are routinely delivered in reports and analyzed for an array of reasons, including fraud detection, police investigations and journalism.

We can all rest easy, as long as we pay them.  They call it:  Service with a smile, and a gun.

•  Oh,

  this is a really big scandal down here in Ga. I would love to see who choicepoint made campaign donations to-you could really bang this over the head of someone running for reelection.

  I want to see if they can delete my information. These people are completely invading your privacy.

  by ga7thdem on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 07:29:01 AM PDT

  •  This is my favorite quote on the subject

    From an old Atlanta Journal Constitution article:
    

    
    "The U.S. is to privacy what Caribbean islands are to money laundering," said Chris Jay Hoofnagle, deputy counsel with the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. "If you want to store personal information in a jurisdiction where there are almost no legal protections, the U.S. is the place to do it."
    

    
    

    by topdog04 on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 07:51:30 AM PDT

•  Also

  Choicepoint was the company used by Katherine Harris to "cleanse" the voter rolls in Florida before the infamous 2000 election.

  by jiacinto on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 07:31:38 AM PDT

•  So how do we find out

  if we were one of the lucky ones whose info got stolen?
  Does anyone know?

  by nhselectwoman on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 07:55:07 AM PDT

  •  My question as well..

    ..and of particular concern as I live abroad, and mail taking a month to reach me is not unusual.

    I went to the ChoicePoint website in the hopes that they had a search mechanism (i.e., type in your name and SS# and get an answer) but no such luck.  Unreal - ChoicePoint's lifeline is electronic data transfer, and they are using snail mail to notify the affected!

    They do have a Contact Us page, so I will be writing them an email and will see what happens.

    by Wayward Wind on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 08:48:31 AM PDT

•  choicepoint

  Beyond invading privacy, The choicepoint product sucks, their competitors are better both at providing intel and protecting privacy.  Choicepoint has enormous government contracts to provide useless information to federal law enforcement and I have heard their owners are close to the Bushes.

  by ttcrewes on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 08:56:05 AM PDT

•  This morning on NPR

  on the Diane Rheims show there was a discusssion about electronic surveillance and the Choicepoint disaster:

  Robert O'Harrow: "No Place to Hide"

  You can listen to it online.

  by marysz on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 08:58:12 AM PDT

•  SCARIER AND SCARIER

  I remembered reading about his a while ago....

  Choicepoint's other business

  The Bode Technology Group performs DNA identification analysis on a daily basis for federal and state agencies, as well as commercial firms.

  And from this Greg Palast

  ChoicePoint is the biggest supplier of DNA to the FBI's "CODIS" system. And, one company insider whispered to me, "Derek [Smith] told me that it is his hope to build a database of DNA samples from every person in the United States."

  For now, Smith keeps this scheme under wraps, fearing "resistance" from the public. Instead, Smith pushes "ChoicePoint Cares" - taking DNA samples to hunt for those missing kids on milk cartons. It's for, "the mothers of this country who are wrestling with threats" - you know, the pizza guy from Al Queda, the cult kidnappers. In other words, ChoicePoint's real product, like our President's, is panic.  

  by David in Burbank on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 09:04:15 AM PDT

•  What is even

  worse is that ChoicePoint was NOT going to let people outside of CA know their information had been  given away.  CA has a law that required ChoicePoint to notify their customers, the other states did not, and ChoicePoint fought notification in the other states.

  This is a PRIME example of how the GOP seems to think that curbing the ability of citizens to sue companies is "American" but protecting those very citizens from things such as ChoicePoint has done isn't worth any time or effort.

  by SanJoseLady on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 09:07:37 AM PDT

•  asdf

  It's too bad that noone has published the personal information of Choicepoint officers, you know, given them a taste of their own medicine.

  by mosesfreeman on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 09:55:52 AM PDT

•  May not be an accident but a leak ...

  See my diary just starting on the subject of the Seisint
  Supercomputer and Database at Boca Raton, Florida, Jeb's country. The "no performance needed" contracts supplied by State and Government grants, uhh "contracts".

  The MATRIX
  and FACTS^TM are a huge risc to US citizens privacy. The well guarded compound of Seisint, when questions were asked about security of data, the response of Jeb was to add additional Florida guards. Great way to have oversight of the data streams of the Supercomputer.

  The tiny affair on PropaGannon prohibits further research on the topic, but I am certain the JG | GOPUSA | Texas Pepug connection | RNC | McLean Va. | Jeb's Florida | will tie in at the end.
  Just let it unfold and give the bloggers some time to catch up to further uncloaking!

  In 2005 - Be liberal: Support our Allies of Democracy on Human Rights, the Environment, Gay and Minority Rights & EU and UN Third World Development Programs & Our Friends

  by creve coeur on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 11:18:16 AM PDT