Choicepoint Roundup, April 13
- Internet News has one of many reports on the latest breaches, this one titled “Feinstein Tightens ID Theft Proposal”
- Bob Sullivan at MSNBC reports on background checks:
But experts say the nationwide tallies are often full of holes, and contain as few as 70 percent of all felony conviction records, leading in turn to a false sense of security.
…“We’ve done tests, and the national databases have a 41 percent error rate,” [Rhonda Taylor, CEO of Intellisense Corp] said. “(There is) a glaring issue related to a false sense of security if that information is relied upon with no other investigative tools.”
(via Dave Evans.) Choicepoint missed at least 40 convicted criminals when they did the background checks for airport screeners, along with one guy who was a fan of Osama bin Laden.
- The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports “Feds dependent on data brokers
:”The FBI says it trains agents before they can use ChoicePoint’s database to ensure the data isn’t misused or abused. Hoofnagle disputed that, citing documents the obtained by the Privacy Information Center.
“There was almost no evidence of controls to prevent agency employees from misusing the databases,” he said.
My Choicepoint category archive includes extensive coverage of the most recent Choicepoint ID theft issue.
Re: background checks. An unamed friend works for the DoJ. She was recently contacted by a federal agent to schedule her mandatory preemployment background check interview, over 10 months after starting work….. They’d had trouble tracking him/her down because they were no longer at their address in the city at which they’d lived prior to moving to DC. Due to the move the interview were to be handled by a different agent and they would be contacted by the new agent sometime in the next month….