Wall Street Journal: FBI turns to private sector for data. ChoicePoint and its rivals specialize in doing what the law discourages the government from doing on its own — culling, sorting and packaging data on individuals from scores of sources, including credit bureaus, marketers and regulatory agencies.
ChoicePoint is a data broker, and it’s in the business of selling your most private information to anyone who can show a “appropriate” use for it. This is a laughably broad term, as everyone in that business knows.
How broad? Take a look at this FAQ. Read the “appropriate uses” section.
Then read the answer to the question, “Can I opt-out of CDB Infotek’s databases?” Answer: NO.
Want to know what their dossier says about you? That’ll be $20, sucker.
Maybe it really is too late. Maybe there’s nothing left of privacy and no way to re-create it.
But I don’t want to go down without a fight. I consider ChoicePoint and other data brokers a cancer on our society, and I would like to see them brought to heel.
What can we do? Send me your ideas.