Reaction Of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
To The FTC's ChoicePoint Settlement
Thursday, January 26, 2006

“This is a significant step forward for accountability, and it also sends an unmistakable signal to others in the burgeoning field of data brokering.  As the largest civil penalty in FTC history, this settlement also shows that the Commission shares the public’s concern about security for their personal information, which today is stored in more and more databanks and trafficked as a valuable commodity.

“The ChoicePoint breach highlights a dangerous vulnerability in the information economy – the inadequate screening of the customers who are buying personal information.  I am particularly troubled by the FTC’s findings that ChoicePoint turned over personally identifiable information about consumers to subscribers whose applications clearly raised red flags, and that ChoicePoint failed to tighten its application approval procedures even after receiving subpoenas from law enforcement authorities alerting it to fraudulent activity.  The series of data breaches over the last year has also begun to focus Congress’s attention on this problem, and Chairman Specter and I will continue to push for action on the data security bill we have introduced to raise the bar for the safeguards that are needed to protect this sensitive data.”

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