Fed's Data Compilers - ChoicePoint and Bank of America

[chat_noir]

I found this post on Google Groups:

He says NSA is just collecting phone numbers and nothing else from millions of Americans. But what he doesn't tell you is the federal government has a huge contract with ChoicePoint (check out their web site- background checks). Using the phone numbers ChoicePoint can identify the user of the phone and can conduct: Addresses where the user lives and has lived…Race…SSN… Motor vehicle record search… Present employment… Credential verification… Introscan (verify background information on potential employees)… References (interviews with co-workers, neighbors, etc.)

Then found:

Senator questions FBI on ChoicePoint contract

Senator Patrick Leahy, of Vermont, blasted the DOJ and its Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) division for a recent five-year, US$12 million contract for ChoicePoint to provide investigative analysis software to the FBI. In February 2005, ChoicePoint announced a data breach after criminals set up fake businesses that purchased private information from the data broker.

snip

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended the contract, announced Monday. The ChoicePoint contract represented the best value for the FBI, and it covers software and technology, not data services, he said

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/040506-senator-questions-fbi-on-choicepoint.html


Leahy Proposes Accountability Among Compilers Seeking Federal Contracts


Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) took a moment during a Senate hearing to acknowledge the benefits to consumers compiled information has offered. But he took several moments to needle data compilers for sloppy security practices – including those of ChoicePoint and Bank of America by name. Within the last month, both of those companies revealed that consumer data entrusted with them had fallen into unauthorized hands.

In light of this, Leahy suggested that Congress consider privacy and security concerns when doling out federal contracts.

snip

Leahy is no outside observer to these breaches: His credit card data was among that of 1.2 million Department of Defense workers contained on five Bank of America data files that were lost in transit in late December. And he had harsh words for Bank of America, which earlier this week said that it used commercial airliners to transport the data tapes that disappeared.

http://www.directmag.com/news/leahy-accountability-compilers-031105/index.html



ChoicePoint and the Threat to Privacy

http://goldenstateblog.latimes.com/goldenstate/2005/11/golden_state_co_5.html


I'm sure that there is a lot more information out there on this topic.

[CountAllVotes]

1. MBNA just sold themselves to Bank of America

and I just called MBNA and closed my account!

Enough is enough!!!

:dem: :kick:

[chat_noir]

2. ChoicePoint >> Florida 2000 election

ChoicePoint has been criticized, by many critics of the 2000 election, for having a bias in favor of the Republican Party, for knowingly using inaccurate data, and for racial discrimination. Allegations include listing voters as felons for alleged crimes said to have been committed several years in the future. In addition, people who had been convicted of a felony in a different state and had their rights restored by said state, were not allowed to vote despite the restoration of their rights. (One should note Schlenther v. Florida Department of State (June 1998) which ruled that Florida could not prevent a man convicted of a felony in Connecticut, where his civil rights had not been lost, from exercising his civil rights.) Furthermore, it is argued that people were listed as felons based on a coincidence of names, despite other data (such as date of birth) which showed that the criminal record did not apply to the voter in question.

Journalist Greg Palast has argued that the firm cooperated with Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, and Florida Elections Unit Chief Clay Roberts, in a conspiracy of voter fraud, involving the central voter file, during the US Presidential Election of 2000. The allegations charge that 57,700 people (15% of the list), primarily Democrats of African-American and Hispanic descent, were incorrectly listed as felons and thus barred from voting. Palast estimates that 80% of these people would have voted, and that 90% of those who would have voted, would have voted for Al Gore. The official (and disputed) margin of victory, in the election, was 537 votes.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ChoicePoint