A number of people have pointed out that the real Choicepoint scandal isn't that they were robbed in a way that allowed identity theft, but that their robbers obtained the information by posing as legitimate customers, raising questions about just what Choicepoint ordinarily does with all that information about us.

Hint: It's not just used for marketing.

Quoting from Mary Hodder's Napsterization (Choicepoint Scandal Unspun):

Tara Wheatland over at bIPlog has the definitive post on Choicepoint, their culpability over the cracking of their systems and people's data, and what's really going on. Many of the news stories were apparently inaccurate, and she dissects the spin Choicepoint put out to minimize their responsibility and some of the activities they engage in that are very unsettling. Check it out!

Also, check out EPIC's pages on Choicepoint. There's lots more background on this company that has been, for example, providing data to government agencies that those agencies would be barred by law from collecting on their own because of privacy laws that came out of Watergate. Well worth knowing what is happening with the company that stores all the information it can aggregate on you.

Financial | Government | Law & Policy | Market Research | The Dark Side
Christian Crumlish's blog | email this page | delicious | digg | technorati