[Clips] ChoicePoint Curtails Business, Changes Methods to Protect Data

[R.A. Hettinga]

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 Delivered-To: clips at philodox.com
 Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 11:49:02 -0400
 To: Philodox Clips List <clips at philodox.com>
 From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
 Subject: [Clips] ChoicePoint Curtails Business,
 	Changes Methods to Protect Data
 Reply-To: rah at philodox.com
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 <http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB111957007176668246,00.html>

 The Wall Street Journal

  June 24, 2005


 ChoicePoint Curtails Business,
  Changes Methods to Protect Data

 By ANN CARRNS and VALERIE BAUERLEIN
 Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
 June 24, 2005


 ChoicePoint Inc. is sharply curtailing one line of business and making
 significant changes in the way it shares much of its electronic data, in an
 effort to avoid incidents like the data breach disclosed earlier this year
 in which criminals obtained personal information on about 145,000 people.

 The Alpharetta, Ga., data concern will electronically mask sensitive
 information such as Social Security numbers in its reports, such as
 background checks provided to companies on new employees. ChoicePoint is
 also taking steps to severely reduce its business in providing data to
 private investigators, collection agencies and some small financial
 concerns.

 The moves come in the wake of the high profile data breach at ChoicePoint,
 in which criminals posed as legitimate small businesses to illegally obtain
 data, and similar recent incidents involving other companies. The data
 losses have heightened concerns dramatically about identity theft -- in
 which an individual's personal information is used to fraudulently open
 credit-card accounts or apply for loans -- and helped spur congressional
 hearings into whether further laws are needed to protect sensitive personal
 data.

 ChoicePoint, which has troves of personal data about nearly every American
 adult gleaned from sources such as business clients and public records,
 also has begun providing free annual copies to consumers of its "personal
 public records" searches, even though the company says it isn't yet
 required to do so by law.

 "We believe that individuals should be able to see the information that's
 available about them," said Mr. James Lee, the company's chief marketing
 officer.

 The company's personal public records searches provide a broad range of
 details about individuals, such as any criminal history; property owned,
 such as houses, cars and boats; professional licenses held; businesses
 owned, and any sanctions lodged against the holder.

 ChoicePoint has been offering the reports free since March but hasn't
 widely publicized the service. Consumers may, however, go to
 www.choicetrust.com, the Web site for the company's consumer division, to
 print out an application, which they can complete and mail to ChoicePoint,
 along with documentation of their identity and address. The company then
 mails the report to the individual. The process can take several weeks.

 ChoicePoint says it is restricting the type of information provided to
 certain small business clients, including private investigators and
 collection agencies. Those customers and "nonbank" financial institutions,
 such as check-cashing concerns, will no longer have access to reports
 containing an individual's full Social Security number and similarly
 sensitive data.

 ChoicePoint expects that those changes will make their offerings far less
 attractive to that market and likely cost the company between $15 million
 and $20 million in annual revenue, or about 2% of its annual sales, said
 Mr. Lee.


 --
 -----------------
 R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
 The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
 "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
 [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
 experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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