Thoughts 08 Dec 2006 08:30 am
Choice Point
The feds just mailed the claim forms for people who think they may have been victims of identity theft, caused by Choice-Point selling their data to,..aw, you guessed, identity thieves.
This, fine, upstanding, company that is without a doubt, run by pillars of the community, who only have the best interest of the consumer in mind, (excuse me while I step outside and scream) sold 163,000 files to the bad guys, but it was a simple human error, and couldn’t possibly have been based on greed.
“The events of early 2005 provided critical lessons from which ChoicePoint, and indeed the entire industry, has learned a great deal,” Derek Smith, ChoicePoint’s chief executive, said in a statement. “The men and women of this company take nothing more seriously than their responsibility to safeguard consumer information.”
Subscribers were approved even though some lied about their credentials and used a commercial mail drop as a business address, the agency said. In other cases, ChoicePoint would receive multiple faxed applications from the same location, with each form listing the sender as a separate business.
The penalty is $15m, $10m to go to the feds and $5m to go to consumers, and Choice-point will continue to do business as usual, of course they’ve put “safe-guards” in place so ID thieves will have to get a little more creative and not just call in and say, “hi, I run a totally bogus business, here’s money, give me your data.”
The form is available by clicking this link, FTC-Choice-Point.
Be sure and look at the FAQ.
Years ago, far enough back so I carried Wordperfect on a 5 1/4 floppy,
I bought a book on how to be an information broker. I gave it some serious consideration, and then decided that the government would step in and prevent me from selling other people’s personal data. I was wrong then, wasn’t I.
I not only could have sold their data, I could make a bundle selling to the bad guys and all uncle would do is slap my wrist and tell me not to get caught.