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Choicepoint Roundup, March 4

The focus of today’s roundup is “an object lesson in how not to manage a crisis.” Call Choicepoint CEO Derek Smith at home, 770 667 5775, and tell him what you think. Remember, Atlanta is on Eastern Standard Time. On to the roundup:

• Not Bad For a Cubicle points out that
  

  “This is the first time that that kind of process has really happened for us,” Derek Smith said in a Feb. 21 interview with Atlanta television station WXIA

  but no, he was lying to us. It had happened before. It’s a good thing we have extensive databases that allow us to catch people in these sorts of lies. But its clear that no one understands what that means. Or perhaps Smith is setting himself up for an Ebbers defense?

• Tillnet [link to http://till.co.nz/tillnet/index.php?p=76 no longer works] has a good roundup and analysis today, including this choice quote from Michael Hiltzik:
  

  ChoicePoint Inc., the data-selling company at the center of an identity-theft scandal, has been displaying one of these hitherto unrecognized talents, big time. In its case, it’s a talent for convincing the public that it can’t be trusted with people’s personal information any more than a 3-year-old can be trusted with a machine gun.

  In fact, the company seems determined to prove that it should be regulated like a chemical polluter or, even better, put entirely out of business.

• Atlanta’s local papers continue to please, with this from local alterna-paper,
  Creative Loafing [link to http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/news_brief.html no longer works]:

  So here it is, Smith’s home number: 770-667-5775. (If you’d rather write him, his address is 15120 N. Valleyfield Road, Alpharetta, GA, 30004.)

  If you do call or write him, be sure to wish him a belated happy birthday. Using Web searches, we found Smith was born in February 1955.

  Incidentally, we also unearthed, in public records, the floor plan of Smith’s and his wife Lisa’s 9,223-square-foot home, which was last appraised at $1.4 million.

• The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports on Delta call center supervisor Bruce Chilumuna, who wasn’t angry at Choicepoint when he got the letter. He got angry when he called and was treated like a line in a database:
  

  It made me wonder how they would treat me if someone actually did steal my identity,” he said. “I was fine when I called, but now maybe I’ll jump on board one of the class action suits.”

• Also in today’s AJC, Choicepoint fails to respond adequately to Georgia’s Attorney General, and Congress has started to associate terrorists with Choicepoint.
• News.com reports that Choicepoint will stop selling SSNs and drivers license numbers to some subset of customers, resulting in revenue reduction of $15-20m.
• Finally, today’s Two Minutes Hate comes to you from Stephenson Strategies [link to http://www.stephensonstrategies.com/2005/03/01.html#a275 no longer works].

All my prior Choicepoint posts are listed here.

Originally published by adam on 4 Mar 2005
Last modified on 4 Mar 2005
Categories:   Choicepoint   Uncategorized