Costa Rican government trying to halt sales of government data

[Judi Lynn]

Costa Rican government trying to halt sales of government data

MARIANELA JIMENEZ, Associated Press Writer Friday, December 19, 2003



(12-19) 23:05 PST SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) --

Costa Rica's justice minister said lawmakers in the Central American country are likely to pass a measure by April restricting the sale of data that the government collects on its citizens.

The proposed legislation announced by Justice Minister Patricia Vega on Friday stems from a Costa Rican government study that determined that at least six companies operate in Costa Rica selling personal information, much of it credit-related, and some of it from government sources.

The study was prompted in large part by the public outcry that an Associated Press report on international data-trafficking triggered last April.

The AP reported that a U.S. company, ChoicePoint Inc., bought official registry files listing sensitive data on tens of millions of people from sources in Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

The government data, obtained through middlemen, was sold by ChoicePoint to U.S. law enforcement, immigration and other agencies.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/12/19/international0205EST0433.DTL

[arcos]

1. Thanks for posting this...

as a Costa Rican, I was outraged to know that a company could be selling MY personal information to other governments. Hopefully this law will be approved especially because it is privacy related, something the Libertarians would approve... they have stalled congress, but hopefully they won't stall this.

[cprise]

2. I hope Wesley Clark doesn't feel slighted

.

[FormerOstrich]

3. This is a great example that needs to be exploited.

...and that's the fact that there is a huge demand for private data. It is a lucrative industry. Now, think about all the information and data that is accompanying the jobs we are sending off-shore.

Who believes that India, China, or the Philippines are going to feel bound by US laws governing the use of private data?

They may be scrubbing information from the general population but the flow of information about us, our businesses, financial, medical, scientific, and everything else is NOT being stymied.

I believe it's safe to say IT people have access to a wealth of data. It's all in the code. Nobody is tending the store.