Data Collection: Choicepoint

DATA COLLECTION: CHOICEPOINT

ChoicePoint data collection agency based in Alpharetta, Georgia, a byproduct of Equifax, tapped into a market of public and private of information gathering of data, amassed the data into commercial databases, and marketed the data they collected mostly to companies across the nation that included small business, law firms, private investigators, and law enforcement. The data included drug testing, job applicants, personal and public records, and even background checks. According to Mr. Smith’s easy access to reliable personal information helps restore a lost America in which neighbors in small towns knew each other and could conduct business with confidence (Boatright, 2009 p. 161).

The major benefits of ChoicePoint’s data collection was the ability to accumulate billions personal material ranging from personal information such as credit histories, birth and death certificates, marriage and divorce decrees to civil judgments and criminal background. The data collection operation would easily allow business like real-estate companies, landlord, debt collectors, banks, mortgage companies, and law enforcement to obtain personal facts without having to go out deal with time consuming searches which would be extremely costly when all much needed information is right at their fingertips, and stored in a ready to use computerize database. Business have always provided better services to select customers, but any discrimination was limited by the cost of the information (Boatright, 2009 p. 156).

ChoicePoint, one of several U.S. data brokers, recklessly missed handled personal information causing 163,000 people in 2005 to become victims causing in 800 cases of identity

DATA COLLECTION: CHOICEPOINT

theft. The harm of ChoicePoint’s data collection failure was so severe that the Federal Trade Commission sited them for being irresponsible in the handling of consumer personal information. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)...