Reply #26: rose from nothing to multibillion-dollar status in a very short time

[MelissaB]

...snip


ChoicePoint made the news again recently when it was belatedly revealed that it had provided confidential personal information on 145,000 U.S. residents to identity thieves posing as legitimate business people. So far, according to an NPR report last week, 750 of those people have been victimized by the thieves.

How did ChoicePoint react to their damaging mistake? Well, at first it did nothing, claiming later that it did not want to interfere with a criminal investigation. The, when pushed, it sent out letters to the 145,000 victims, telling them they were at risk.

That's it. Letters. Just letters telling the victims that they'd been had and they'd better do something to protect themselves.

Here's the part that gets me. ChoicePoint is supposed to be the nation's top expert on personal information, so how is it that it cheerfully provides such information to a bogus company? Isn't the whole point of a company like ChoicePoint to protect others from being cheated by cheats? If it can't protect itself, why should others expect it to protect them?

The latest ChoicePoint fiasco cries out for investigation. Are there only 145,000 victims, or are there many more? Do all the victims belong to the same political party by any chance? What price will ChoicePoint be asked to pay for the massive damage its apparent negligence has caused?

A cynic would say there's more to ChoicePoint than meets the eye. It's a company that rose from nothing to multibillion-dollar status in a very short time. Its known mistakes are horrendous.

Is ChoicePoint tied in with the Bush administration in some way? Not that I know of. But I'm betting the Bushies have warm, fuzzy feelings about ChoicePoint, and it's not going to be held accountable.


http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/sorensen/


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