Yesterday, I discussed why Choicepoint should be looked into more closely: a history of shady business ethics, security lapses, and ties between one important executive and the international drug trade.
But before we can make any effort to reveal the dark side of the company, its important to first shine some light on the 'light side' of Choicepoint.
You can follow below the fold ... but you might not be the only one watching.
What does Choicepoint do, exactly? The sadly non-snark answer here, of course, is "steal elections". But what are they
supposed to be doing? The answer is frightening. Big Brother is, in a sense, not tinfoil hattery. It is already here.
Choicepoint publically acknowledges dozens of programs, subdivisions, subsidiaries, and products. Their election work ensures that there are more than don't make their advertising lists. Here are just some of the hydra's many heads:
- AutoTrackXP is an Internet-accessed database query that cross-references "public and proprietary records including identity verification information, relative and associates, corporate information, real property records, deed transfers and much more."
- Biometric and Authentication Solutions is linking fingerprint and "other" biometric data to all their other records.
- Bode Technology Group, a subsidiary, provides forensic DNA matching.
- Bridger Insight gives "multinational financial institution[s]" access to the ChoicePoint datamine for the purposes of PATRIOT Act, Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Bank Secrecy Act compliance, including searches against government terrorism and anti-money laundering watch lists.
- ChoiceTrust provides detailed background checks about consenting subjects to private individuals.
- Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange is a huge -- 95% of filed claims -- database of insurance claim information, used for everything for determining insurance rates to claim denial. There are a host of sub-functions for various types of insurance, such as a search for car insurance that uses ChoicePoint's knowledge of addresses, family, and associate information to "help identify potential additional drivers in a household" for the express purpose of raising rates for people living with higher risk drivers.
- DebtorDiscovery uses their huge dragnet of records to track pretty much anyone owing money anywhere.
- DirectLink helps expand third-party marketing databases so that they can target people not previously on marketing lists.
- eAppend gives their customers a "secure" email-accessible data retention system.
- EquiSearch Services tracks business assets, including shareholder interests, brokerage firms, and transfer agents.
- FlexFoundation, operated by subsidiary EzGov, is "one of the world's leading government software providers" for revenue collection, licensing, and benefits and claims.
- HealthPulse tracks the credentials, licensing, and sanctions and disciplinary history of members of the health care industry.
- i2, now a subsidiary, provides data analysis software to "intelligence agencies throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas, including the United States".
- iMapData links ChoicePoint's databases of corporate and financial data to geography, showing where the subjects of their data are and what they do.
- Insurance Decisions, operated through subsidiary Insurity, provides "outsourcing services" to around half the US insurance industry.
- LienGuard uses ChoicePoint's infrastructure to "automate" loan approvals (and denials) for the lending industry.
- Magnify is a subsidiary specializing in detecting insurance claims fraud.
- MARI is a mortgage database that includes non-public mortgage data and is linked to credit scores, Social Security numbers, and criminal records.
- MarketView matches the ChoicePoint databases with third-party data to provide detailed marketing reports on "more than 210 million consumers".
- National Criminal File indexes criminal records down to the county level, including even parole and release files.
- NetMark, created in conjunction with the National Association of Securities Dealers, is an electronic fingerprint validation utility and database.
- Official Travel Documents is a subsidiary that is a third-party passport application gateway.
- Precision Marketing Teleservices provides direct support for business-customer communication, which includes telemarketing.
- Public Records Group is an "unprecedented" cross-referenced database of what appears to be nearly all public business and financial records in (at least) the US.
- TrueID cross-references photo IDs with all the other ChoicePoint data.
- VIN Services tracks the history of nearly all the motor vehicles in the US.
- VitalCheck uses the ChoicePoint database to provide birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates. I wasn't even aware this was another part of Choicepoint until I started researching; this is the way everyone I know who has gotten replacement birth certificates has done so.
- VolunteerSelect includes nonprofit organizations in the ChoicePoint data net.
- Washington Document Service provides "research capabilities at every court, legislature and agency in the country." This research includes docket sheets, pleading, an briefs from court cases nationwide, as well as the results of FOIA requests.
- WorkPlace Solutions uses the ChoicePoint databases for pre-employment screenings, including drug test records, which are themselves processed by another ChoicePoint subsidiary.
So, what do they know about us? ChoicePoint knows who we are, where we live and have lived, where we work and have worked. They know where we shop and what we buy and what car we drive to get to those stores. They know how much we spend, how much we have paid, and what we still owe. They know who our families are, and our friends. They know everytime we -- or those close to us -- has missed a payment, had an accident, made a claim (or talked to our insurers about making one), or run afoul of the law (even if we were cleared). They know the dealings of nonprofit groups, too, and so they probably know what we believe in and how we are likely to vote. They even know, or soon enough will, our fingerprints, our face, and even the amino acid codes that write our DNA.
They can share this information with the government, in a circular feasting on American privacy. And while corporate clients, at least by law and on paper, don't have unfettered access to all the records and cross-links, Choicepoint is free to use what it learns to help out their marketing friends ... and whoever else might benefit from knowing everything there is to know about their fellow Americans.