Big brothers little helper

Big Brother's little helper

Well i don't think this has been posted yet. I don't know what section would be good for this either, so i'll just drop it in here.

I saw this article linked of metafilter.com today. Thought you guys would really like to see it. It talks about a company called ChoicePoint . What they do is they collect all the data they possible can on all americans. Some of it is information thats already public like, property records or criminal histories. But some of it is also more private information and they collect it all into one large database. But they can package and sell the info to employers, insurance companies, direct marketers, state governments and at least 30 federal agencies.

You can also go and take a look at what they have on you, but aparently it's time consuming and complicated for an individual to do that, but much easier for federal agencies.

The arcticle also goes on to talk about how not all the info is correct either. There have been reported mistakes. Some big ones, but that can make it even more dangerous.

Anyway it's a good read (and a long one too) and well worth the time.


[Edited on 10-12-2003 by jra]

ChoicePoint is a creepyass company.
They effectively joined forces with Pinkerton - the first "detective company" in 2001. Today, Pinkerton guards America's nuclear plants and government buildings.
They also specialize in "global intelligence"
Currently, Pinkerton C & I (the global intelligence guys) are calling themselves "CODA." As in "financial intelligence"?
You may have already had an encounter with ChoicePoint ... the last time you got hired.
SecurePoint is a little spinoff of ChoicePoint that specializes in pre-employment screening. It's hardcore background checks, too .... these guys don't mess around!

Yeah, so do a little poking around about all the little criscrosses between these companies. I've been keeping my eye on 'em for a couple years now.

-B.

MC BIG BROTHER MAY BE WATCHING!!

www.valleystar.com...

Ah yes, another of the information harvesting companies, these guys really do scare me, they're tasked with the highest level screenings, i think they've even handled yankee white clearance at some point, they dig up everything on you and have a team of guys analyse your complete profile, they're tasked with the bigger fish, i'd say securepoint was the small fish which would look at everything the big guys delegate to them along with normal americans. Everyone is watching, its just a matter of their intentions.

Here's a story:

My father was working on a project for a Company called Transcanada Pipelines who are in the process of building a Liquified Natural Gas Importation station along the US Eastern seaboard. Out of nowhere comes a Greek shipping company CEO who wishes to be included in the operation because he wants to build the LNG tankers right there beside the port. He needed some front capital and wanted TCPL to put up some of the money for his factory. First off, this guy lives in DC and doesn't own a vehicle or anything. My dad found this a little strange and so too did the board of directors for TCPL. Luckily, TCPL had a detective team on its payrole. They coupled their team with a team from one of the above mentioned detective companies to look into this Greek shipping lord.

What do ya know? The guy doesn't exist. So the team pushes ahead a little farther. Does some serious digging until they find the guy's real name. He's wanted for fraudulantly ripping off millions. Needless to say my dad kicked his ass off the project and he was never heard from again. Probably in jail, but TCPL didn't put him there. It's none of their business how much money this guy has stolen from others... God I Love Capitalism.