March 02, 2005

ChoicePoint, Part II Continuing the earlier FPP about this, the LA Times (and others) have uncovered that the same thing happened to ChoicePoint 5 years ago.

I happen to be one of the additional 110,000 people notified by ChoicePoint that my personal information could have been compromised. As I am no longer a California resident, they had no legal obligation to notify me. When I received the letter last week, I was annoyed by the advice they provided me with: check my credit card statments for unauthorized transactions, and contact the major credit reporting bureaus to put a warning on my credit report. Basically, they screwed up, sold my data to people who should not have it, and they're offering little to no actual help. Basically, it's a "we screwed up, but we're not going to do anything of use to help you correct our fuckup". Reading this story, my annoyance has increased to outrage. They didn't appear to alter their business practices or security measures after the first time it happened, and now a new round of people have been affected by it. While I'm not normally a litigious person, I read that a California woman has launched a lawsuit against ChoicePoint over the data breach, and is seeking a class-action status. I'd be more than happy to join the suit. Someone needs to be held accountable.

posted by jim_t 19 years ago
  • Oh, and now it turns out that the President and the CEO of ChoicePoint made a combined $16.6 million selling shares of stock between October 2004 (when ChoicePoint learned of the data breach) and February 2005 (when ChoicePoint reported the breach publicly). Grrr.
  • Sue those bastards and milk them for all they've got. It's only when they get hit in the money bags that they take notice and try to make up for their blunders.
  • $16.6 meeellion dollars /Dr. Evil
  • 'Grrr' doesn't begin to cover it. Incompetent bastages. I fervently hope there is a class action suit and you see some satisfaction from it.
  • Give me a candy bar and I'll kill a couple of them for you. Seriously... a random homicide or two would take so much stress out of my life. This really sucks. Sorry to hear about it.
  • Wait a minute. Isn't suing corporations unAmerican?
  • It is. And that is why our current administration is making it as difficult as possible to sue them. Eventually, look for large corporations to have the same exempt status as states.
  • I think we need to solve this the old-fashioned way: Kill their leaders and sell their women and children into slavery. I'm only half-kidding about this. When these leaders are really and truly made to feel a substantial amount of the pain they've caused others through their arrogance and incomptence, only then will these kinds of things stop.
  • I am opposed to killing, so if you are half-serious, then I am prepared to make an offer on the women.
  • Wait a minute. Isn't suing corporations unAmerican? posted by HawthorneWingo at 01:00AM UTC on March 03 If you sue ChoicePoint, it will only be more expensive for consumers in the long run. The company may have to start charging you for the privilege of having your data easily available.
  • bernockle How about if I make their leaders work as janitors at Jack in the Boxes in impoverished suburban areas for life, then sell their women and children into slavery? To some it would be a fate *worse* than death . . . What will you offer me for my fine corporate wives and children?
  • Wow, I didn't know that choicepoint was run entirely by men married to women who don't work outside the home. Go figure.
  • I will offer you three slices of Kraft American Cheese for each corporate wife that you have.