The Truth about Big Brother
Databases
by Lynn Peterson and Genie Tyburski,
Guest Writers
Worried
that your personal details may be stored away in a database for anyone to see?
Two public records experts describe exactly what is -- and is not -- included
in "big brother" databases. Do you know that your FBI profile resides
in a database where employers -- or anyone willing to pay the fee -- may review
it?
(1) That
the database, and others like it, contains your social security number, credit
profile, employment history, travel records, court records, personal interests,
and serious health conditions?(2) That information brokers regularly sell such
data to identity thieves?(3) These attention-grabbing messages appear with
increasing frequency in the news. But while they make the stuff of a good legal
thriller, they reek of inaccuracies and distorted facts. Rather than informing
about what personal information exists online, how it gets there, and who has
access to it, some would have you believe that your life is an open book for
all to read. Or worse, that anyone wanting a new identity may buy it. What
information appears in commercial, or publicly accessible, databases about you?
Any transaction or event that generates a public record may find its way
online. If you purchase a home, for example, information about the sale, including
the sale price, amount mortgaged, and the mortgagor, becomes public record.
Likewise,
if you file for bankruptcy, own a business, obtain a professional license, or
become involved in a lawsuit, then information about you resides in public
records. Criminal convictions and, in some states, marriage, divorce, death,
boat or vehicle ownership, vehicle accidents, applications for fishing or
hunting licenses, and voter registration also produce public records.
Increasingly, public records reside in commercial or government-sponsored
databases, but restrictions concerning their access and use make illegal some
of the claims you read in the news. Major federal laws governing the sale or
distribution of personal information include the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the
Drivers Privacy Protection Act, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
Other
federal laws also provide some protections: e.g., the Family Educational Rights
and Privacy Act (school records), the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (medical records), the Privacy Act (data collected by
government agencies). Various state laws govern the disclosure or use of
driving records, vital records, workers' and unemployment compensation claims,
and even criminal records. For example, driver histories are not public records
in
Various
state corrections bureaus offer databases containing prisoner information. Many
federal and state courts enable online access to court dockets and case
information. Some county governments make property ownership and tax assessment
records available. While many government-sponsored databases enable free or
low-cost easy access, the same is not generally true of commercial vendors.
(KnowX LLC, owned by ChoicePoint presents one exception, but it provides access
to data deemed public information for all legal purposes.)
Commercial
vendors usually sell subscriptions only to businesses, or other groups, that
meet the permissible use requirements of the various federal privacy laws.
These typically include law firms, private investigators, law enforcement,
financial institutions, and insurance companies. Applying for access normally
involves filling out an application, providing references and evidence of
business status, and submitting a permissible use statement. Remaining a subscriber
may mean submitting to audits and providing a permissible use for each query.
Those who violate the privacy laws, or a vendor's self-policing policies, may
find their account terminated, or face FTC sanctions or fines. Despite what
some news articles suggest, permissible uses do not include providing nosy
neighbors with a report containing your "social security number, credit
profile, employment history, travel records, court records, personal interests,
and serious health conditions."
Credit
reports, or documents that list your credit transactions with financial
institutions and other businesses, and that typically contain your current home
address, telephone number, social security number, and employer, are available
to businesses only under certain conditions; e.g., you apply for employment,
credit, or insurance. Travel records, personal interests, and serious health
conditions do not constitute public information unless you make it available
via a public document like an openly accessible Web page or a court filing. On
the other hand, employers may retain information about your business travel for
tax purposes.
Similarly,
doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies may have access to information
about serious health conditions. But data in these categories does not reside
in public records databases like those provided by ChoicePoint, LexisNexis,
Seisint, and others. What about your FBI profile? Is it available for sale? No.
Neither employers, nor others outside law enforcement, may access your FBI
profile. You, on the other hand, may obtain a copy by submitting a written
request under the Freedom of Information Act and paying the required fee. As
for the sale of personal information to identity thieves, unscrupulous
information brokers undoubtedly exist. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in
fact charged, sanctioned and fined three last March who obtained consumers'
private financial information under false pretenses.(4)
The agency also issued over 200 warning letters to individual firms whose Web sites
or advertising boasted illegal practices known as pretexting.(5) While these
deplorable acts cast a shadow on the entire profession, such shysters
nonetheless represent a minority.
Moreover,
the FTC does not know how many incidents of identity theft actually result from
the illegal sale of personal information from online sources like ChoicePoint.
The agency's recent statistics indicate that in cases where the victim learned
how the personal information had been gathered, the most common access method
involved a relative or person known to the victim.(6
Lynn Peterson is president of PFC
Information Services, Inc. <http://www.pfcinformation.com>,
a public records research firm located in