Choicepoint Roundup, March 6
- The Atlanta Journal Constitution contains the first MSM discussion I’ve seen of Derek Smith losing his job over this.
- Evan Hendricks of Privacy Times has a good article in the Washington Post, discussing who owns data, how we’ve gotten here.
- Axel, of Balrog.de comments “that ChoicePoint does NOT state in that Form 8-K that they had been asked by LA law enforcement to postpone [notification]. Good catch!
- CreditSuit has several good posts on Credit Report Freezing laws being proposed, and points to a Consumers Union roundup of such laws.
- Finally, today’s Two Minutes Hate comes to you from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s editorial pages.
All my prior Choicepoint posts are listed here.
The awkwardness with which ChoicePoint handled this is illuminating. At seemingly every turn, they say or do something which undermines their goal, which I presume to be crisis management/public relations.
Note to B-school brand-management faculty: this one is a potential antipode for Tylenol in the “how to handle crises that threaten your viability” department.
I just got the call from ChoicePoint, they wanted to update my account contact information and will be emailing me a new application, so I guess I am in the 2% of their market to be rescreened. I wonder if I’ll make it through.
From emailing, Mr. Kemp is an actual customer of Choicepoint. If you are not a Choicepoint customer, that is, if you don’t see a monthly bill from them, they WILL NOT be calling you, and you should be very suspicious if they do. Take a number where you can call back, and call Choicepoint and your local police department for fraud.