Georgia decides against crime database

[Judi Lynn]

Tuesday, October 21, 2003 · Last updated 12:17 p.m. PT

Georgia decides against crime database

By KRISTEN WYATT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

ATLANTA -- Georgia will not join a sweeping crime database that tracks personal details of even law-abiding citizens, Gov. Sonny Perdue decided Tuesday, citing cost and privacy concerns.

The decision to withdraw from the multistate Matrix database came a day after state Attorney General Thurbert Baker said it would be illegal for Georgia to release its driver's license records to the private company putting the database together.

The Matrix database, controlled by a Florida company called Seisint Inc., was billed as a speedy way for law enforcement agencies to find records.

But privacy rights advocates, including former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr, a Republican, took issue with the plan. The database would track all citizens, not just people accused of a crime, and the information would include credit information, marriages and divorces, even fingerprints and Social Security numbers. (snip/...)

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=Terror%20Database

[DUreader]

1. good news, thanks for posting

[nyrnyr1994]

2. Good for Georgia, but now

what about the other states? I wonder which ones have "plugged-in" to the Matrix...

here's something about one of Seisint Inc.'s products available to the public called Accurint:

"Online Database Uncovers Secrets, Fast

By Carol Levitt and Mark Rosch

Need an inexpensive, fast database that culls through billions of records from hundreds of sources to help you conduct skip tracing and background research on people and companies? If so, Accurint.com, which is both accurate and current, could be the answer to your researching needs.

Accurint searches begin at 10 cents and never top $5.00 per searched name. It is exceedingly fast – it searches 20 billion records from 400 sources. It is also accurate, or rather as accurate as the public records and other resources on which it depends.
<snip>

The results will display a person’s current name or names, aliases or misspellings of a name, date of birth, Social Security number, current and historical addresses dating back 20-30 years, current telephone numbers, names of others living at the subject’s current address and date of death, if applicable."

http://www.seisint.com/news_aug_20_2002.html

[redqueen]

3. I thought this was great news!

Just saw it over at Yahoo on their main page for the first time, and I'm really glad that it's not been buried already.

I'll be faxing a printout of this story to my state reps today!