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Data firm slip leads to calls for curbs

Gov. Bush joins criticism of ChoicePoint, which says scam artists did not get Florida driver details from it.

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published March 4, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - A data-collection company that was duped into revealing personal and financial information to scam artists is under fire in Florida and Washington as state and federal governments seek to tighten control over the industry.

ChoicePoint, a suburban Atlanta information broker, said thieves used stolen IDs to get work and credit histories and Social Security numbers from as many as 145,000 people, including 10,000 in Florida.

About 750 people nationwide might have had their identities stolen, the company said, describing the security violation as a case of financial fraud that's "pervasive" in the new economy.

The breach brought calls for legislation, and Gov. Jeb Bush joined in the criticism Thursday.

"I think ChoicePoint ought to get its act together," Bush said.

ChoicePoint and Florida do lots of business together. The company spent $13.7-million last year buying driver histories from the state motor vehicle agency. But ChoicePoint has assured Florida officials that no motor vehicle records fell into the hands of criminals.

"The fraud was conducted by a very small number of criminals who posed as legitimate companies to gain access to personal information about consumers," David Zona, a ChoicePoint vice president, said in a letter to the motor vehicle agency.

A company spokeswoman declined to comment Thursday.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., filed bills Thursday to tighten federal oversight over companies that sell personal information to third parties. The legislation would put companies like ChoicePoint under the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission.

"If there's no protection, people are going to be invading these databases and no American is going to have any privacy," Nelson said.

In Tallahassee, state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-West Palm Beach, called for a law that would require ChoicePoint to immediately notify any consumer whose identity might have been compromised.

California is the only state with such a requirement. As a result, about 35,000 people were notified of the latest security breach, which was how the ID-theft scam surfaced last month.

"The new technology is outpacing our privacy laws," Aronberg said. "I don't think anyone would have known about this had California not passed its disclosure law."

Privacy groups praised the proposals by Aronberg and Congress.

"It's a very promising development, and it's long overdue," said Beth Givens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego. "It's really a shame we legislate by horror story, but that's how we do things in this country."

ChoicePoint acquired DBT, a Boca Raton company that gave the state of Florida a flawed database of ineligible voters for use in the 2000 presidential election. Several counties refused to use the list and civil rights groups sued the state, claiming some voters were illegally purged from the rolls.

As part of the settlement, ChoicePoint donated $75,000 to the NAACP.

DBT claimed it warned the state that its list was unreliable, but the state used it anyway.

The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that the recent ChoicePoint case was not the first time the company's database had been illegally penetrated.

In 2002, two fraud artists stole at least 7,000 ChoicePoint records, the newspaper reported.

Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 4, 2005, 00:30:22]