Dan Solove: ChoicePoint functions as spy agency [priv]

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 00:38:18 -0500
To: <politech () politechbot com>
Subject: [Politech] Dan Solove: ChoicePoint functions as spy agency [priv]

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 () comcast net>
To:  Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>



Declan,



Washington Post reporter Robert O¹Harrow, 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,
O¹Harrow 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 O¹Harrow, 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, O¹Harrow 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).  It¹s 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_1/10
2-0959143-0499340?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance



I strongly urge anybody interested in ChoicePoint to take a look at
O¹Harrow¹s great article and fantastic book.



Daniel J. Solove

Associate Professor of Law

George Washington University Law School
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