Attention shoppers: Personal background checks go retail (Choicepoint)

[Newsjock]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/03/05/national1426EST0604.DTL

NEW YORK (AP) -- Beyond the gallon jars of mayonnaise and the office furniture, shoppers browsing the aisles at some Sam's Club stores will find something that isn't usually sold at retail -- an employee background check in a box.

"Make better hiring decisions," says the package, a little smaller than a box of breakfast cereal. "Conduct background checks quickly and easily!"

... But the new check-in-a-box, which is marketed by ChoicePoint Inc. and began selling alongside software for $39.77 late last year, points to new efforts by data vendors to market background screening as a consumer product.

... The new check-in-a-box, containing a CD-ROM that allows users to tap ChoicePoint's online databases, gives small business owners access to an essential tool previously available mostly to big companies, say ChoicePoint and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which is selling the product in 41 of its Sam's Club membership warehouses in 26 cities.

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[LSparkle]

1. All the more reason NOT to shop at either!

I flipped off a Wal-Mart truck this morning on my way to work!

[loftycity]

2. Oh Great! and all of us were worried about plain old identity theft..

What a wonderful invitation tool for thieves and crooks.

Geez... Wal-Mart once again..

[htuttle]

3. That was my first thought

I'm stunned that they are offering something like this on a retail shelf.

It used to be that you actually needed a good REASON to do a background check. If you wanted to check credit, you had to be a business, and sign up with the credit agency.

Now, I suppose all this will be 'self-serve'.

So much for privacy! This is a very bad thing.

Read on:

In practice, however, a purchaser can use most of the screening options -- including criminal background checks, Social Security number identification and vetting of credentials -- without supplying such a (business) license, ChoicePoint acknowledges.

Users of those services are checked "on a random audit basis, but there is not an affirmative requirement that you have to produce it (the license) before going forward," Lee said.

(snip)

Users also are required to follow federal law, mandating that they have the signed permission of job applicants before running a screen. But satisfying the software requires only clicking on a box -- ChoicePoint does not require that the form be presented or check to see if it has been signed.

[loftycity]

4. This product and GPS and your all set to start your own little CIA.

Check out their web site...www.choicepoint.com
Makes you want to move away for good...unplug from the world.

[Nay]

5. This is what happens when absolutely everything is for sale.

And it's going to get worse.

[Trillo]

6. Sold us out . . .

If someone needs to buy information about me, why don't I get the money?

[Mairead]

7. ChoicePoint are the rightwingers who did the infamous List in Fla, no?