HUGE Story: ABC reports on ChoicePoint

[EVDebs]

tonite re potential ID thefts...what didn't get the headlines is the SAIC San Diego story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17506-2005Feb11.html

Combine this with the offshoring of CAPPS II to the Bahamas with Ben Bell's company and viola!, the watchers have now become the watched (if these ChoicePoint thieves are working together).

The FTC's protections of our private financial and healthcare data is officially a JOKE. We're paying a huge price for getting rid of the Glass-Steagall Act.

Also see this posting here at DU
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1599524&mesg_id=1599524

[kohodog]

1. Whoa, could you put this into English?

Sorry, this looks intriguing, but I have no idea what you're talking about.

[mhr]

3. Choicepoint Collects Billions Of Pieces Of Information On Each Of Us

This information is sold to private corporations and the government.

They know more about you than you know yourself - like every credit card transaction you have ever made - like every thing you purchased at the grocery store - etc.

[EVDebs]

5. What's even scarier, they and others like them outsource to foreign

countries. Mortgage loan files are of particular concern since they are a 'holy grail' of your personal financial data.

Not too long ago a Pakistani medical transcriber shookdown UCSF see "A tough lesson on medical privacy - Pakistani transcriber threatens UCSF over back pay"
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/10/22/MNGCO2FN8G1.DTL

"Bill to Force Data Theft Notices "
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59419,00.html?tw=wn_story_related

was never acted upon. Maybe now it will !

[ailsagirl]

6. Ah... kinda like this??

http://www.aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf

[EVDebs]

4. ChoicePoint , the GA data collection company was hacked...

YOUR personal financial and medical information along with thousands (perhaps millions) of other Americans is now in the hands of those who don't have your permission or the permission of companies you gave it to. ChoicePoint

http://www.choicepoint.com/about/overview.html

was the company Jeb Bush contracted with to 'purge' Florida's voter rolls. It collects all kinds of data.

Reporter Greg Palast has done extensive research into this company and what it can do. The potential tie-ins to nearby military installations (domestic spying / psy-ops ) is possible, but now we have this fiasco that ABC news just reported on where OUTSIDE hackers were able to steal information.

Combine this with the San Diego intelligence company SAIC's hacking just a few days ago and you have an FTC nightmare of gargantuan proportions.

Sen Diane Feinstein's bill to require notification and fines may have prevented this kind of fiasco (see
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59419,00.html?tw=wn_story_related )
but we'll never know now.

[GetTheRightVote]

2. Id thefts are going crazy these days, this company did not even warn

its clients until much later, after the case in fact.
I have no desire for them to keep or protect my information.

:kick:

[BornaDem]

7. I don't want them to have my information either...

but I don't think an individual has any choice in the matter. My husband says most of the insurance co's hire them to run a credit check on anyone who wants to buy a policy from them. (auto, homeowners, medical, etc.)