Private data warehouse computers packed with 19 bil. public records.

[bigtree]

Give It Up: Info for Protection
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,63304,00.html?tw=rss.PRV

Database aggregators like ChoicePoint have quietly become powerful arbiters, whirring in the background when people seek jobs, get on airplanes, apply for insurance, commit a crime or fall victim to one. ChoicePoint's computers are packed with 19 billion public records.

>>>>>>>

Since being spun off in 1997 from credit giant Equifax, Georgia-based ChoicePoint has become an $800 million institution that acquires a company -- along with its data trove -- every two months. ChoicePoint owns a DNA analysis lab, facilitates drug testing for employers and recently began selling background-checking CD-ROMs at Sam's Club.

>>>>>>>

Last year, a furor erupted in Latin American countries when The Associated Press reported that ChoicePoint had sold their citizens' home addresses, unlisted phone numbers and other personal information to the U.S. government. U.S. agencies used the data to track immigration violators and crime suspects.

The company also took heat after a firm it had acquired, DBT Online, supplied Florida elections officials with an inaccurate list of felons -- the roster included some people with misdemeanors. Those names were purged from voter rolls before the 2000 elections.

________________________________________________

ChoicePoint (NYSE: CPS) is a corporation based near Atlanta, Georgia, USA, which claims to be the "nation's leading supplier of identification and credential verification services."

Overview:

ChoicePoint has a DNA laboratory which was used to identify victims of the WTC attacks. Data supplied by ChoicePoint was used in the Beltway Snipers investigation. Choicepoint also assisted the Transportation Security Administration in conduction ~100,000 applicants. The US Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children credit the corporation with assisting in the return of ~800 missing children. As of 2003, ChoicePoint's CEO is Derek V. Smith, who has held that position since 1997. In 2002, ChoicePoint generated earnings of ~$200 million on revenue of ~$791 million. The company employs ~3,500 people at 52 locations within 26 states.

Florida Voter File Contract

In 1998, the state of Florida signed a $4 million contract with Database Technologies (DBT Online), which later merged into ChoicePoint, for the purposes of providing a central voter file listing those barred from voting. As of 2002, Florida is the only state which hires a private firm for these purposes. Prior to contracting with Database Technologies, Florida contracted with a smaller operatore for $5,700 per year. The state Florida contracted with DBT in November 1998, following the controversial Miami mayoral race of 1997. The 1998 contracting process involved no bidding and was worth $2,317,800.

Criticism Regarding the Florida Voter File

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.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/ChoicePoint


Me Book