Posted on: Saturday, March 12, 2005
Dossier can be dead-on or error-filled
| • | Is Your Data Safe? |
By Ellen Simon
Associated Press
NEW YORK — If you're wondering what information data-trafficking companies have on you, you're not alone.
It's a question on many minds now that two such companies, ChoicePoint Inc. and LexisNexis, have disclosed that criminals sneaked into their databases and accessed personal data on more than 170,000 Americans.
To find out just what these companies have on us, I bought dossiers on myself from both, spending less than $30. Like most major news organizations, The Associated Press has accounts with data brokers.
A curious customer looking at both my reports would find out everything from my sister-in-law's brother's name to my party affiliation. (Undeclared.) But they wouldn't learn that I'm married.
The reports are rich with information but they are by no means complete. Nor are they always accurate.
The LexisNexis database that thieves breached is called Accurint. Through Accurint, the company sells reports on individuals that cost anywhere from 50 cents to $4.50.
As a note on the top of my $4.50 Accurint report reads, "The Public Records and commercially available data sources used on reports have errors. Data is sometimes entered poorly, processed incorrectly and is generally not free from defect. This system should not be relied upon as definitively accurate. Before relying on any data this system provides, it should be independently verified."
That said, the Accurint database provided a more complete report than the ChoicePoint database.
It had my name, date of birth and Social Security number. It listed my bankruptcies, real estate and corporate affiliations. (None, none and none.)
It listed my current and former addresses and phone numbers, as well as those of my neighbors. (My husband is listed as a neighbor.)
Both Accurint and ChoicePoint got one of those addresses wrong, giving me the same address on both East 105th Street and West 105th Street in New York. I only lived on the West Side.
The Accurint dossier listed out-of-date voter registration information from my last apartment as well as incorrect information on when I last voted.
Accurint's list of my possible relatives was brief and dead-on, almost scarily so. That was in distinct contrast to ChoicePoint, whose 200-person list of possible relatives, while rich with celebrities, was largely inaccurate. (If I had my choice between being related to former Go-Go's band leader Belinda Carlisle and dyspeptic playwright Neil Simon, both of whom are in my ChoicePoint dossier, I'd pick Belinda in a heartbeat.)
My Accurint file was 17 pages of small type. For about $25, my ChoicePoint file was 77 pages long. It covered much of the same ground Accurint did but included many more digressions, such as those 200 possible relatives.
While I have a big family, ChoicePoint missed most of them, instead listing possible relatives who are really no relation.
All those Simons in Warrenton, Va? Never hear of them. Same for the Dubuque family of Ewing, N.J.
The penultimate category was a dud — "Other people who have used the same address of the subject." Saying there were too many records to display for my current address, the dossier suggested "a manual search." I'm not sure if that means a manual search through ChoicePoint's data, or one through paper files at my local City Hall. The file doesn't say.
No individuals were found to be living at the address where my parents still live.
Manual searches were suggested for all my other addresses, as they were greater than five years old, even though one wasn't.
There are some categories where ChoicePoint and Accurint came up empty.
For instance, I have a driver's license and had, until recently, a vehicle registration. There's no sign of either on either report.
It also seems much more information would be available if only I were more interesting.
Among the categories for which there were no matches in the ChoicePoint file were possible bankruptcies, liens and judgments, possible DEA controlled substance license, possible federal firearms and explosives license, possible significant shareholders, and, most intriguing, a category called "Possible Florida Fictitious Name."
Just call me Belinda Carlisle.
