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FBI Spends Millions Buying Dossiers On Almost All American
Adults
Government Extended News News Keywords: CHOICEPOINT
INC, FBI
Source: privacyfoundation.org
Published: 5-12-1 Author: By Richard Smith
Posted on 05/12/2001 07:41:42 PDT by antonia
FBI Spends Millions Buying Dossiers On Almost All
American Adults
By Richard Smith
http://www.privacyfoundation.org/commentary/tipsheet.asp
5-12-1
I was a bit surprised to learn last month that I have an
FBI file. You have one,
too.
The FBI spent $8 million last year with a company called ChoicePoint Inc. to
buy dossiers on almost all adults who live in the United States. ChoicePoint,
formerly a part of credit-reporting giant Equifax, is a publicly-held database
firm with a market value of $2.25 billion, based in Alpharetta, Ga.
Using our Social Security numbers as a key personal identifier, ChoicePoint
compiles dossiers on citizens from credit reports, and from public records
such as court files, property tax documents, business incorporations, and
professional license applications. ChoicePoint bundles the information and
resells it to business and government clients. The FBI is apparently such a
good customer that they get their own website to access the database.
The Wall Street Journal reported on the FBI's use of this database on April
13. After reading the article, I e-mailed ChoicePoint CEO Derek Smith asking
to see the dossiers on my family. A couple weeks later, after paying $20
apiece for the privilege, I received by mail a packet of more than 60 pages of
computer print-outs from ChoicePoint containing information about myself and
my wife.
Sixty pages seemed like a lot of information for one family. Looking through
the first few pages of my dossier I saw that my credit card companies gave
ChoicePoint my current address, plus my previous two addresses. My town
gave them information about my house: when I bought it, how much I paid for
it, and my property taxes. They even had the square footage for the house,
which I've been curious to know ever since we moved in. Since my wife and I
have the same phone number in the White Pages, ChoicePoint correctly
deduced that she and I are related.
The deeper I dove into my dossier, however, the weirder things got. A lot of
misleading information is included, perhaps because my name is a common
one. ChoicePoint noted, for example, that I might have been previously
married to some lady named Mary, but that I had died in 1976. Yikes! They
did a search of Texas criminal records and found nothing under my name.
However, the report suggested a further search under names such as "Ricky
Smith" and "Rickie Smith" because there were some bad guys in jail under
these names. ChoicePoint touted me as a real estate agent in my town. They
also thought I might be involved in more than 30 small businesses around the
country simply because the name "Richard Smith" appears as a company
officer.
On my wife's dossier I learned with amazement that she had a son named
"Kyle" three years before we met. It was unclear from the report how
ChoicePoint made this connection and where Kyle is today. Pretty funny how
they missed our two real daughters. They did list one of my daughters as a
neighbor, but she actually hasn't lived at home for the last eight years since she
went away to college.
Memo to the FBI: The ChoicePoint dossier for my household contains more
misinformation than correct information. I'm not sure how someone looking
over these reports could use them in any meaningful way without already
knowing a good deal about myself and my wife.
After seeing these reports, I wanted to opt-out. Guess what? Just as with
credit reporting agencies, you can't. They choose to have a relationship with
you, but you have no choice in your relationship with them. In my original
e-mail message to the ChoicePoint CEO, I asked about opting out. I got a
nice letter back from the ChoicePoint chief privacy officer saying "No." Here
was the reason given:
"Our individual reference products are used by legitimate businesses and
government agencies to identify and locate individuals to make society a safer
place, including detecting and preventing fraud, locating and apprehending
fugitives, and finding missing children and reuniting them with their families.
Given these uses and the adverse effect opt-out would have on our ability to
provide quality information for these decisions that matter, I am unable to
remove your information from these products." Hmmm. My next level of
concern is about how the misinformation in these files could be used against
me. Besides providing information to the FBI, ChoicePoint helps companies
conduct employee background checks, fraud investigations, and review
insurance applications. I don't want to be hassled simply because a stranger
who is listed on my dossier does something wrong. I'm also wondering
whether information about me is mistakenly on the dossiers of people with a
similar name.
Using mistaken information can have ugly consequences. This happened last
year when ChoicePoint provided criminal history information to the state of
Florida. In a lawsuit filed in January, the NAACP alleges that thousands of
legal voters were mistakenly taken off the rolls in Florida prior to November's
disputed presidential election. ChoicePoint claims that Florida county election
officials failed to properly correlate ChoicePoint information with voter
eligibility.
Given ChoicePoint's stated desire to deliver quality information to businesses
and government agencies, I've sent them marked up copies of the dossiers on
my family so that they can correct their databases. If you want to see your
own FBI/ChoicePoint dossier, you can order it for $20 through the CDB
InfoTek (now owned by ChoicePoint) website linked below.
How can I get a copy..., CDB InfoTek (scroll down page)
FBI Turns to Private Sector for Data, The Wall Street Journal via
MSNBC, 4/13/01
Florida's Flawed "Voter-cleansing" Program, Salon.com, 12/04/00
Database Technologies Did Not Remove Voters From Florida Rolls,
Company Testifies Before U.S. Civil Rights Commission,
ZDNet, 2/16/01
1 Posted on 05/12/2001 07:41:42 PDT by antonia
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To: antonia
Bump.
2 Posted on 05/12/2001 07:43:25 PDT by SevenDaysInMay
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To: antonia
Antonia, thank you.
It might be cheaper and even more informative to do a FOIA request for your file from
the FBI.
...but they would accidently fail to turn over 300+ documents.
3 Posted on 05/12/2001 07:51:14 PDT by SC Swamp Fox
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: Commonsense, citizenx7, RightWinger, dixie sass, stand watie, Dr.No
A Big Brother flag to my fellow SC Freepers.
The FBI probably had to give me one of those expandable folders just to hold all of my
E-mails to the WH and congress, and copies of all of my
BB, Usenet and FR posts over the years.
4 Posted on 05/12/2001 07:55:10 PDT by SC Swamp Fox
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | Top | Last ]
To: antonia
Antonia - Did they get your FR handle right?
5 Posted on 05/12/2001 08:04:19 PDT by Tunehead54
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To: SC Swamp Fox
The FBI can require reimbursement of "reasonable" costs for conducting and replying to
a FOIA. I've never made one to the FBI, but I'll bet
their "reasonable" costs are prohibitive. This outfit is interesting; I think I'll
cough up the 20 bucks and see what they have one me.
6 Posted on 05/12/2001 08:11:29 PDT by JoeFromCA
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | Top | Last ]
To: Hugh Akston
....so it continues!!!
7 Posted on 05/12/2001 08:12:00 PDT by OneidaM
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | Top | Last ]
To: antonia
"Our individual reference products are used by legitimate businesses and government
agencies to identify and locate individuals to
make society a safer place, including detecting and preventing fraud, locating and
apprehending fugitives, and finding missing children
and reuniting them with their families."
What a bunch of malarkey. If their monitoring of private citizens was doing one damn
thing to make "society a safer place," we'd be living in
Utopia by now.
Excellent post, Antonia. We all know government forces see us citizens as little more
than lab rats, but to see specific examples like this is pretty
chilling.
8 Posted on 05/12/2001 08:37:59 PDT by white rose
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To: antonia
Insurance companies now routinely access your information to obtain (a) credit
information, (b) claims history, (c) driver history, and (d)
information about anyone else in your household who might pose an undisclosed risk
against your coverage. This is the same information which
you used to voluntarily submit, however...
What is truly frightening about ChoicePoint is that this information is provided
instantaneously, and the volume of details about you and your life is
staggering.
Government itself could not legally gather these details without probable cause -- but
it can buy information which already exists. So think twice
before you voluntarily surrender too many details, even to your grocer. For example,
if you use a Kroger "Plus" card in exchange for a discount,
every item you buy (and when you bought it) is a matter of record which Big Brother
can purchase or subpoena. Technology is indeed a
two-edged sword...
9 Posted on 05/12/2001 10:11:49 PDT by Always A Marine
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To: SC Swamp Fox
Glad to see that George Orwell is alive and well and living in DC.
10 Posted on 05/12/2001 11:54:48 PDT by Commonsense
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | Top | Last ]
To: antonia
There might be an opportunity to use the lawsuit abuse system for a good purpose and
sue them for libel and slander for incorrect information in
your "dossier."
11 Posted on 05/12/2001 14:52:51 PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: antonia
LOL!
I can only imagine what my file looks like...
Some accurate information, A lot of inaccurate information and a big heapin' helpin'
of ambiguous, contradictory and downright bizarre
information...
...courtesy of a couple of decades of intentional effort on my part to obfuscate
databases just like this.
It's easy to do. To begin, get on the mailing list of a courtesy card distributor and
begin the process of presenting a hundred different faces to the
info-harvesters. It doesn't require any significant time or effort, and only rarely a
stamp. (most of the mail generated this way will contain
postage-paid return stationary)
I think of it as cheap entertainment...
Within a few years you can be everyone from that (Fill in the ethnic group) who loves
pornography and new age philosophies to the (Fill in the
ethnic group) who loves 'monster trucks' and is on the mailing list of every fringe
religious cult west of the Mississippi. (And virtually every group
in between!)
Don't use your self-descriptions in any of the prohibited ways (to obtain credit,
etc.) and you can lie your ass off about every (imaginary) detail of
a hundred different lives that no one ever lived.
After awhile, people with your surname (or some variation of it) who don't even exist
(and who you didn't create) will begin to get mail.
Of course, your only address for this should be a PO Box. (That's the only address
I'll give, it's even on my Driver's License) When anyone
demands a street address, I shrug and say (truthfully) that I live in the country and
refuse to set a box.
About 5 years ago they assigned me an 'enhanced 911' number, and left the letter on my
porch with instructions to put the number on the house
since I won't provide a box on the roadside.
I wiped my butt with it.
On my checks I have the 'legal description' of the property where I live. (SW quarter
of the NE half of the E quarter of...) If a cashier doesn't
like it I get their supervisor front and center and make it clear how easy it is for
me to trade with their competitor. They've always taken my
check after these talks.
My 'phone number' on the checks will ring an old phone that I pay the bill for in a
workshop about 13 miles from my home. No one ever
answers it. (There's very seldom anyone even there.)
No SSN on my checks or Driver's License, and I never give it out. People don't even
ask much anymore, which is a little disappointing... I
always enjoyed saying 'No'.
Deny access to accurate information to people who have no business asking for it to
the maximum degree possible. Sow ambiguous and
contradictory misinformation over time. Deal with a small, local financial institution
for your checking account, auto loan and credit card
requirements.
With luck, you can generate a dossier that the Feds have to call in the Teamster when
they want to move it. (You know, the guy who has the
forklift license...)
12 Posted on 05/12/2001 20:21:35 PDT by DWSUWF
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: Chesty_Puller, Bigun, usconservative, dons, MissAntiFeminazi, MsAntiVenom, GRRRR75
bump
13 Posted on 05/13/2001 06:55:04 PDT by dixie sass
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | Top | Last ]
To: DWSUWF
>From your FBI profile (based only on its weight) you must be a very dangerous
>character.
"Lets just break his door down and shoot him."
"Well, yeah but where is he?" /sarcasm
Live long and prosper......PC
14 Posted on 05/13/2001 07:15:57 PDT by Politically Correct
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | Top | Last ]
To: antonia
You do know that Equifax is a British-owned company don't you?
15 Posted on 05/13/2001 10:14:22 PDT by usconservative
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: Politically Correct
"..."Lets just break his door down and shoot him." "Well, yeah but where is he?"..."
LOL! That's the plan!
Take care.
16 Posted on 05/13/2001 10:45:38 PDT by DWSUWF
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | Top | Last ]
To: Dog Gone
Just thought you'd appreciate this one.
17 Posted on 02/03/2002 09:11:35 PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]
To: NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
Hmmm, I think it might be worth 20 bucks to see what they say about me.
The invention of the computer and the internet (Thanks, Al) are the greatest threats
to privacy ever. Now, the government and private individuals
can sit at their own keyboards and retrieve records that previously were kept only in
dusty file cabinets, if at all.
Every transaction you make by credit card, and even your banking history can be easily
accessed.
It's possibly to maintain previous levels of individual privacy only by completely
opting out of society. It's possible, but it's difficult, and most of us
won't choose to do it.
18 Posted on 02/03/2002 09:37:44 PST by Dog Gone
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | Top | Last ]
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and
do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All
materials posted herein are protected by
copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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