|
ChoicePoint (previous NYSE ticker symbol CPS) was a data aggregation company based in Alpharetta, near Atlanta, Georgia, United States, that acted as a private intelligence service to government and industry.〔(In Age of Security, Firm Mines Wealth Of Personal Data ), ''Washington Post'', 19 January 2005, retrieved 14 March 2007〕 It was purchased in February 2008 by Reed Elsevier (parent corporation of LexisNexis) in a cash deal for $3.6 billion USD. The company was rebranded as LexisNexis Risk Solutions.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=LexisNexis Risk Solutions )〕 ChoicePoint combined personal data sourced from multiple public and private databases for sale to the government and the private sector. The firm maintained more than 17 billion records of individuals and businesses, which it sold to an estimated 100,000 clients, including 7,000 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies (30 March 2005 estimates).〔(EPIC ), 30 March 2005, loaded 3 April 2007〕 However, this data had not been secured sufficiently to prevent theft of data on at least one occasion (see below). The company had also been the subject of lawsuits for maintaining inaccurate data, inquiries whether it allowed political bias to influence its performance of government contracts and accused of illegally selling the data of overseas citizens to the U.S. government. ChoicePoint was used to perform consumer and criminal background checks on prospective employees of the Obama administration.〔(CNN Obama Questionnaire ), 13 November 2008, loaded 13 November 2008〕 ==Activities== ChoicePoint generated revenue of around US$1 billion in 2006,〔(ChoicePoint at Yahoo Finance ), retrieved 12 September 2007〕 and employed around 5,500 people at nearly 60 locations in the US and UK.〔(ChoicePoint website ), retrieved 12 September 2007〕 The company's activities included the following (30 March 2005 estimates):〔 * Consumer initiated transactions (60% of business), most of which are regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. These included pre-employment screening, insurance underwriting services, tenant screening services, consumer record reporting and title insurance finances * Marketing services (9%), none of which include the distribution of personally identifiable information, but are regulated by state and federal "Do Not Mail" and "Do Not Call" legislation. * Contracts with local and federal law enforcement agencies (5%) * Data and authentication solutions (6%), including litigation and debt collection support to law firms, financial institutions and general business. * Software and technology services (20%), which do not include the distribution of personally identifiable information. ChoicePoint's database of personal information contained names, addresses, Social Security numbers, credit reports, and other sensitive data. In 2005, this database contained 250 terabytes of data on 220 million people.〔(They're Watching You ), ''Business Week'', 24 January 2005, retrieved 10 April 2007〕 ChoicePoint also operated the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (CLUE), a database used by insurance companies to share histories of claims or damage reports on property.〔(Insurers keep a secret history of your home ), ''MSN Money'', 30 July 2006, retrieved 12 September 2007〕 The CLUE database includes identification information on properties such as homes and automobiles, policy records (name, date of birth, policy number), and records of claims (date and type of loss, amounts paid). As of 2006, history is kept for five years. It contains records of damage reports regardless of whether the damage resulted in a claim.〔 ==Florida voter file contract== ChoicePoint became embroiled in the Florida voter file controversy of 2000 through its acquisition of Database Technologies (founded by Hank Asher and known as DBT Online Inc.), a data analysis company in the same year. During the U.S. presidential election of 2000, people in Florida were struck from central voter file and not permitted to vote. The U.S. Presidential election hinged on the outcome of the vote in Florida. DBT Online had been contracted to provide a list of voters barred from voting by the state of Florida in 1998 for US$4 million, including a first-year fee of US$2,317,800. The 1998 contracting process involved no bidding. In the aftermath of the vote, the owner of DBT Online, ChoicePoint,was accused of cooperating with Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Secretary of State of Florida Katherine Harris, and Florida Elections Unit Chief Clay Roberts, in voter fraud, conspiracy involving the central voter file. It was also accused of having a bias in favor of the Republican Party, for knowingly using inaccurate data, and for racial discrimination. 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 . Reports estimate that 80% of these people would have voted, and that 90% of those who would have voted, would have voted for Al Gore.〔(A Blacklist Burning For Bush ), ''Greg Palast'', 10 December 2000, retrieved 12 September 2007〕 Other allegations include listing voters as felons for alleged crimes said to have been committed several years in the future. The official (and disputed) margin of victory, in the election, was 537 votes. ChoicePoint says that it acquired DBT Online after DBT delivered the initial 2000 voter exception list to Florida officials for verification and that it has "no involvement in any election in any country".〔( ChoicePoint's Mythical Role in Elections Past and Present ), ''ChoicePoint website'',8 July 2007, retrieved 14 March 2007〕 However ChoicePoint's acquisition of DBT Online was made public on 14 February 2000 and in May 2000, DBT discovered that approximately 8,000 names were erroneously placed on the exclusion list, so their claim of no involvement does not match the timeline.〔(Voting Irregularities in Florida During the 2000 Presidential Election ), ''Civil Rights Commission Report on 2000 Florida Elections'', retrieved 14 March 2007〕 ChoicePoint Vice President James Lee said that at least 8,000 names were incorrectly listed in this fashion when the company passed on a list given by the state of Texas, and these names were removed prior to the election. Fagan described this error as a "minor glitch".〔(Florida's flawed voter-cleansing program ), ''Salon'', 4 December 2000, retrieved 12 September 2007〕 ChoicePoint, as a matter of policy, does not verify the accuracy of its data arguing that it is simply compiling public information and that it is the original collectors' responsibility to verify accuracy.〔(Choicepoint's Error Rate ) ''Emergent Chaos'' loaded 14 March 2007〕 On April 17, 2000, ChoicePoint Vice-President Martin Fagen testified at a special Congressional hearing in Atlanta that Florida had ordered DBT to add to the list voters who matched 80% of an ineligible voter's name, middle initials, and suffixes were to be dropped, while nicknames and aliases were added. In addition, names were considered reversible, for example Clarence Thomas could be added in place of Thomas Clarence. Lee opened his testimony by noting that ChoicePoint intended to get out of the voter purge industry. Then, on February 16, 2001, DBT Senior Vice-President George Bruder testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that the company had misinformed the Florida Supervisors of Elections regarding the usage of race in compiling the list. Greg Palast concluded, "An African-American felon named Will Whiting might wipe out the registration of an innocent African-American Will Whiting, but not the rights of an innocent Caucasian Will Whiting". Palast alleges that 80% of the 57,700 people allegedly barred from voting were African-American. ==Major security breaches== ChoicePoint has suffered several security breaches which have led to the theft of the personal information it holds. The company has been criticized as much for the way it has handled the thefts as the incidents themselves. Its actions over a substantial breach in 2004 led to calls for new national privacy laws in the US to protect the personal data of Americans.〔(ChoicePoint's error sparks talk of ID theft law ), By Grant Gross, IDG News Feb 23, 2005, retrieved 26 December 2011〕 Since then, reports published in the media say the company has improved its privacy practices. ChoicePoint discovered on September 27, 2004, that some of its small-business customers in Los Angeles were engaged in suspicious activity. The company notified police, but did not inform the individuals whose data was leaked until early February 2005. At first, the company only notified some 35,000 California residents as required by law in that state. After a public outcry for more information, the company notified a further 128,000 US citizens whose records were improperly accessed.〔(FTC imposes record fine on ChoicePoint in data-loss case ), ''Jurist'', 26 January 2006, loaded 30 March 2007〕 Thieves used previously stolen identities to create apparently legitimate businesses seeking ChoicePoint accounts. Over the course of more than a year they then opened about 50 accounts and received personal information on individuals, including names, addresses, and identification numbers. The old-fashioned scheme, that did not involve any hacking, allowed each fake company account to collect "just enough data to fly under the radar"〔(The ChoicePoint Incident ), ''Red Herring'', 22 February 2005, retrieved 12 September 2007〕 in order to facilitate at least 750 cases of identity theft.〔(Break-in costs ChoicePoint millions ), ''C|Net News'', 20 July 2005, retrieved 12 September 2007〕 In total, more than 5,000 cases of identity theft were reported as the result of the breach.〔 The scam came to light when 41-year-old Nigerian citizen, Olatunji Oluwatosin, was detected attempting to gain access to personal data held by ChoicePoint. Olatunji Oluwatosin was arrested in October 2004 with five cell phones and three credit cards that belonged to other people, according to investigators. He was sentenced by the Los Angeles County Superior Court in February 2005 to 16 months in prison.〔(ChoicePoint Data Cache Became a Powder Keg ), ''Washington Post'', 5 March 2005, retrieved 12 September 2007〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「ChoicePoint」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|