Dan is being a bit modest. He has a related book out, also dealing with databases and privacy. I reviewed his and Bob O'Harrow's book here: http://news.com.com/2010-7348_3-5563897.html -Declan -------- Original Message -------- Subject: ChoicePoint Functions as an Intelligence Agency Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 01:11:35 -0500 From: Daniel Solove <djsolove@private> To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private> Declan, Washington Post reporter Robert O’Harrow, Jr., has just written an eye-opening article about ChoicePoint, the company at the center of the ongoing discussions on your list in the past few weeks. In the article, O’Harrow demonstrates that ChoicePoint is, in effect, functioning as an intelligence agency. Even ChoicePoint admits to such. Government law enforcement agencies are outsourcing their responsibilities, and thus escaping from the accountability and protections of the law that regulates the intelligence community. Here are a few excerpts from the article: *Firm Quietly Finds Wealth In Information* By Robert O’Harrow, Jr. Washington Post, Jan. 20, 2005, at A1 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. . . . 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." "We do act as an intelligence agency, gathering data, applying analytics," said company vice president James A. Zimbardi. ChoicePoint and other private companies increasingly occupy a special place in homeland security and crime-fighting efforts, in part because they can compile information and use it in ways government officials sometimes cannot because of privacy and information laws. . . . Hoofnagle, the privacy activist, recently filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission claiming that ChoicePoint has worked hard to avoid triggering oversight under existing laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act. If ChoicePoint's reports about people are not legally considered consumer reports under the act, Hoofnagle said in the letter, then the law should be expanded to include them. Hoofnagle's letter, co-authored with George Washington University law professor Daniel J. Solove, described the Fair Credit Reporting Act as a "landmark law that ensures that compilations of personal information used for many different purposes are accurate, correctable, fairly collected." . . . . Washington Post story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22269-2005Jan19.html In addition to this article, O’Harrow has written a terrific new book, */NO PLACE TO HIDE/*. It chronicles how businesses are increasingly cooperating with the government intelligence community. He interviews the key players from Hank Asher (the MATRIX system) to Charles Morgan (Acxiom) to Derek Smith (ChoicePoint). It’s a spectacular narrative, brimming with fascinating details about the actual people and companies that are engaging in data mining. This is the first real inside look at the data mining industry and how it is taking over intelligence functions. It is filled with amazing facts and is an engaging and thrilling read. No Place to Hide: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743254805/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_1/102-0959143-0499340?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance I strongly urge anybody interested in ChoicePoint to take a look at O’Harrow’s great article and fantastic book. Daniel J. Solove Associate Professor of Law George Washington University Law School _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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