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Private Information To Be Used By Government (moved from ATSNN)

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posted on Jan, 20 2005 @ 11:59 AM
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A company, ChoicePoint, who deals private consumer and legal information has announced it's transformation as a go-between for the government. ChoicePoint will allow use of its database as a source of intelligence for "national security and law enforcement tasks. As the reports of people are not considered consumer reports, they are not covered under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Though the act doesn't necassarily limit access to information, it does ensure accuracy and proper disclosure, a gratitude that will not cover ChoicePoints activities.
 



www.washingtonpost.com
In Age of Security, Firm Mines Wealth Of Personal Data

By Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 20, 2005; Page A01

It began in 1997 as a company that sold credit data to the insurance industry. But over the next seven years, as it acquired dozens of other companies, Alpharetta, Ga.-based ChoicePoint Inc. became an all-purpose commercial source of personal information about Americans, with billions of details about their homes, cars, relatives, criminal records and other aspects of their lives.

As its dossier grew, so did the number of ChoicePoint's government and corporate clients, jumping from 1,000 to more than 50,000 today. Company stock once worth about $500 million ballooned to $4.1 billion.

Now the little-known information industry giant is transforming itself into a private intelligence service for national security and law enforcement tasks. It is snapping up a host of companies, some of them in the Washington area, that produce sophisticated computer tools for analyzing and sharing records in ChoicePoint's immense storehouses. In financial papers, the company itself says it provides "actionable intelligence."




Please visit the link provided for the complete story.


One can't help but think that the Patriot Act, with its many concessions for the expanded access to information, had a hand in making this possible. The lines continue to grey with regards to government and corporate rule. There are many interesting aspects to this company, one, that it was started in 1997 - a relatively short time ago - and is now a multi-billion dollar entity.
ChoicePoint was involved in the Florida voting controversy and was accused of favoring the Republican Party by knowingly supplying false information. See. wikipedia link.
About a year ago, ChoicePoint bought data on ~65 million registered Mexican Voters. I include this because it is a bizarre move from an american company and illustrates the reach of this little known behometh. See link below.
Every conspiracy, to be considered as valid, must have a tie to Wal-Mart. See below link.


Related News Links:
en.wikipedia.org
informationclearinghouse.info
www.walmart.com

[edit on 20-1-2005 by MemoryShock]



 
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