Just yesterday it was reported that ChoicePoint, a major harvester of personal information, had its security breached. This sounds like something out of the move “The Running Man”, You know Arnold in the 80's. Well, this is not science fiction, it is the reality of the day. I am not shocked to hear that someone is mining all of this information from different sources and accumulating it in one MASSIVE data base. I am not shocked to hear they are selling this information, that is American capitalism at its finest. It sure is a lot cleaner than digging for gold, and appears to be much more profitable. What really shocks me is the fact that this information is only for CERTAIN clients. Yes, you heard me right, if you are not on the INSIDE, you will be left OUT.
It all started when ChoicePoint reported a security breach in California, exposing some 35,000 – 140,000 individuals personal data to unsuspecting criminals. This is where it gets real strange. The company reports that criminals were posing as businesses. Wow, that is something new, criminals and business, never thought of that before. This company is suppose to have the security of Fort Knox because they are storing 19 billion records of personal information and they have just found out they were duped by some con men. Not just a few, put a possible 17,000 of them. We should be scared that a company of this size, with so much information has such horrible security. My children's kindergarten has better security.
Americans, watch out because all of this is about money, yes ChoicePoint has almost a Billion dollars in sales and will continue to grow as American business continues to purchase information on YOU. Just to give you a little insight as to who gains from the harvesting of your information, just last year ChoicePoint, the single largest purchaser of information from the Georgia DMV, paid over 18 million dollars for 2.8 million records. Know you know where those records come from every time you do a search on switchboard. Yes they purchase for big bucks from OUR government and sell for even bigger bucks to YOU.
The clincher came yesterday, as reported on National Public Radio, saying that the company was going to correct the flaw in their system. They said that they would limit their data base to government agencies and large public companies because, I assume, there are no criminals in government or large publicly traded companies. Wake up Americans, do you believe that there are no criminals in the Government or large public companies. Where have your been; Enron, Health South, MCI, and many many more.
We are coming to a point where those that have the power will control the information and the rest of us get the shaft. This is only the beginning because politicians and experts nationwide are moving forward to create the same databases for MEDICAL RECORDS. Yes all of your health history will be stored in companies like ChoicePoint just waiting to be breached by some company wanting to make a buck. Yes, they just may have to pay for the information, but there is always a willing buyer and seller. If we every want to live a life with a personal identity, we must change the laws allowing for the harvesting, sale and distribution of our personal information by any business large or small or the government. It should be illegal to accumulate data regardless if it is public or private. We live in the land of the FREE and want to stay that way!
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