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Lee says the major source of errors in public records
is "fat-finger" or keystroke errors. While aggregators
can correct bad data on things like CLUE reports, pre-employment
reports, tenant screenings and other reports covered by the Fair
Credit Reporting Act, or FCRA, as amended by the Fair
and Accurate Credit Transactions, or FACT, Act of 2003, they
are unable to correct errors in government records. And because
many government records are still paper-based, that's where mistakes
are likely to creep in.
Lauren Gelman, associate director
of the Center
for Internet and Society at Stanford University, says the speed
of technology today has changed the playing field when it comes
to personal data and privacy rights.
"A lot of the privacy protections that we had
in the past when it comes to our personal data came from the fact
that the technology wasn't that great. For example, databases didn't
speak to each other, so data that was collected for one purpose
was very hard to use for another purpose or to transfer to another
company if they didn't use the same database service. Because the
transfer costs were so high, people actually got a certain amount
of privacy protection just from that."
Today however, Gelman says storage space is so inexpensive
that many companies are collecting and storing more information
than they need in anticipation of finding a business use for it
in the future.
She is equally concerned that government may be getting
around privacy laws by buying information from industry through
commercial data brokers. "This has become a big concern for
people who care about privacy," she says. "It seems like
there's a pretty big hole if they can just purchase information
from private sector entities."
Transparency a good thing
ChoicePoint for one says it would welcome industry regulation such
as the proposed Specter-Leahy
bill now before Congress.
"We support the legislation; we support notification;
we support the requirements to bring some standardization and oversight
to the industry because that's what it's going to take to restore
public trust," says Lee.
But Lee says the commercial-data-broker industry also
recognizes the need to introduce itself to the public.
"It shouldn't be a choice between convenience
and security; you can have both. But you have to have the appropriate
level of oversight and there needs to be a better understanding
of consumers knowing how their information is used and how they
benefit. The mantra around here these days is, 'Why do you have
my data, and how am I going to benefit from you using it?' That's
something we're going to devote time and attention to going forward.
Transparency is a good thing."
Jay MacDonald is a contributing editor based
in Mississippi.
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