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Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
Some background about Choicepoint and its close ties with law enforcement: http://www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story/content/chronicle/ae/books/01/04/01/tapperch1.html http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/27470.htm http://www.sptimes.com/News/031401/Columns/Privacy_group_gives_T.shtml http://www.choicepoint.net/news/wallstreet.htm http://www.choicepoint.net/news/mostadmired.htm The Wall Street Journal article (no registration required): http://www.msnbc.com/news/558876.asp I invite a Choicepoint representative to reply. I'll send along your response unedited. -Declan *********** Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 09:47:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Bob Bruen <bruen@exile.ne.mediaone.net> To: declan@well.com Subject: choicepoint Hi Declan, I can't remember if you ever wrote about ChoicePoint, but the WSJ has a very good article about them today, April 13 on the front page. They provide one-stop shopping for the FBI, INS and other government agencies trying to collect information about citizens using just the SSN. It reminds me of the service that IBM performed for Hitler to make the task of finding Jews easier through the technology of the time. See "IBM and the Holcaust" - great book. Now our government is paying for services that it cannot do it itself using the SSN that has become a de facto national ID number, which it was not supposed to become. www.cpfbi.com -> choicepoint for the fbi They provide a pages of links for free resources for anyone to use. cheers, bob *********** From: rms@privacyfoundation.org (Richard M. Smith) To: <declan@well.com>, <politech@politechbot.com> Subject: FW: My message to the CEO of ChoicePoint Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 09:00:26 -0400 FYI. I think that everyone should ask for their ChoicePoint/FBI record. -----Original Message----- From: Richard M. Smith [mailto:rms@privacyfoundation.org] Sent: Friday, April 13, 2001 8:51 AM To: derek.smith@choicepointinc.com Cc: tony.mears@CHOICEPOINTINC.COM Subject: Today's Wall Street Journal article Hi Derek, Today's Wall Street Journal has an article about ChoicePoint and how it is providing information about US citizens to the FBI. The article is available online at: FBI's Reliance on the Private Sector Has Raised Some Privacy Concerns By GLENN R. SIMPSON http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB987107477135398077.htm I was wondering if you can send me the information that ChoicePoint holds about my family that the FBI has access to. Here are the names and social security numbers of my wife, my daughter and myself: ... Smith XXX-XX-XXXX ... Smith XXX-XX-XXXX Richard M. Smith XXX-XX-XXXX I am specifically interested in the data that can be retrieved at the www.cpfbi.com Web site. I want to make sure that there are no errors in this information. Depending on the nature of this information, I may also want to delete it. I also have a question about ChoicePoint. According to Network Solutions, ChoicePoint owns the following domain names: cpdea.com, cpins.com, cphud.com, cpgov.com, and cpirs.com Can you tell me what is the purpose of these Web sites? Thanks, Richard M. Smith CTO, Privacy Foundation http://www.privacyfoundation.org *********** ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------