PrivacyActivism study finds new problems for ChoicePoint, Acxiom

Data quality, responsiveness issues add to concerns about security

For immediate release -- May 19, 2005

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San Francisco, CA -- Results of a study conducted by PrivacyActivism show that data aggregators have significant problems with accuracy and responsiveness, potentially serious issues for an industry already under fire for massive security breaches.

100% of the eleven participants in the study discovered errors in background check reports provided by ChoicePoint. The majority of participants found errors in even the most basic biographical information: name, social security number, address and phone number (in 67% of Acxiom reports, 73% of ChoicePoint reports). Moreover, over 40% of participants did not receive their reports from Acxiom -- and the ones who did had to wait an average of three months from the time they requested their information until they received it.

"We designed this investigative study in response to several examples of significant errors in ChoicePoint reports," said Deborah Pierce, Executive Director of PrivacyActivism, "Incorrect data can have severe consequences, especially since information from ChoicePoint and other data aggregators is used in background checks, hiring, insurance and rental decisions, and law enforcement. The situation is even worse when consumers can't be confident of timely access to their information. Combining this with the security problems that have come to light over the last few months, you really have to question how much this industry cares about consumers."

Data aggregators like ChoicePoint and Acxiom collect information from public records, criminal record databases, and other sources, from which they produce individual profiles that they sell to businesses as well as local, state, and federal government agencies. ChoicePoint has over 19 billion records in its databases, containing information on virtually every U.S. citizen.

Dr. Larry Ponemon of the Ponemon Institute, an advocate of ethical information and privacy management practices, expressed surprise at the extent of errors in such a small data set. "While this survey may be too small to reach statistically significant conclusions, these initial results raise real questions about the integrity of the data."

"The results we're announcing today clearly show the need for a larger, follow-on study," Pierce said. "We need to make sure that the debate about appropriate regulation for data aggregators considers consumer protection broadly -- including accuracy and responsiveness as well as security."

The study is available online at http://www.privacyactivism.org/DataAggregatorsStudy.

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Last updated May 19, 2005