In August, the police in Corona, Calif., got a surprising phone call. The caller said an auditor needed to examine the department’s facilities and take pictures inside.
To the security-conscious police, the photo demand seemed ridiculous, especially given its source: the data broker ChoicePoint Inc., one of the department’s information suppliers. A Corona crime analyst refused the request and asked to speak to a ChoicePoint supervisor.
She never heard back.
The episode reveals the delicate balance ChoicePoint is trying to strike as it recovers from an identity theft scandal in which con artists posing as legitimate customers accessed personal information on 145,000 Americans.
As it seeks to exhibit iron resolve against fraud, the data giant is struggling not to alienate customers in the process.
Indeed, the Alpharetta, Ga.-based company has cut off some customers entirely, including debt collectors and other small businesses that once were able to obtain full background reports on people.
Other customers – including The Associated Press – are finding the last four digits of Social Security numbers masked in ChoicePoint reports.
Such moves – which have won praise even from privacy activists who generally criticize ChoicePoint – are expected to trim company revenue by up to $20 million a year and earnings by up to 12 cents per share. (That’s not a huge hit: ChoicePoint earned $1.62 per share in 2004 on sales of $884 million.)
Meanwhile, customers who still get access to the most sensitive data, including driver’s license numbers, are being subjected to site visits and other audits to ensure they are who they say they are – even if those customers are the cops.
