ChoicePoint Errors Familiar
This MSNBC article details how (apparently) common it is for ChoicePoint reports to contain blatant errors. ChoicePoint, of course, is a “data broker” that collects all sorts of information about people (addresses, businesses, criminal record, etc., etc.) and then sells the reports to interested parties such as potential employers, law enforcement, and private investigators. ChoicePoint also happened to be the company that sent notices to nearly 150,000 people last month that they may be at risk for identity theft after criminals incorrectly got hold of a vast amount of information.
Now, that’s not really news anymore since its all been covered before. What struck me about this particular article, though, was that it sounded familiar. When I was applying for a job back in 2002, the potential employer brought something up during the interview that I definitely wasn’t prepared for: they said that the “background information” they’d received on me indicated that I had a fairly extensive criminal record here in Texas. Needless to say I was rather taken aback by this since the only sort of “criminal record” I have is a couple of speeding tickets from years ago (that actually never should have even gone on my record since I took Defensive Driving classes). Obviously, the information the employer had received was incorrect; no doubt there’s some other “Chris Curtis” out there that does fit with the information, but it wasn’t me.
I ended up getting the job, so this little episode didn’t really hurt me, but it does help illustrate that things like this aren’t just isolated incidents that happen to “other people”. That other person turned out to be me a few years ago…
Posted Thursday March 10, 2005 in Real Life by Chris Curtis
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