Databases [Telecom]

In a discussion of this issue on the roads newsgroup, several people, >apparently journalists, were all for this sort of information >sharing. They claimed it was "public" years ago and "public" today >and computerization is irrelevent. I disagree. Years ago adverse >information would lay in the bottom of a single filing cabinet, hard >to find, hard to access, and hard to transmit. Computers have changed >all that and that MUST be considered in public policy and privacy >today. >***** Moderator's Note ***** >IANALB ISTM such databases would sued out of existence in short order. >Any attorneys want to weigh in?

IAAL. Been out of the biz for years but rejoining now.

That said, Choicepoint exists. It claims to be something other than a Credit Reporting Agency, thus it claims exemption from the Consumer Protection provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. After a period of time, negative credit information ages off your Credit Report from any Agency that abides by federal law. Choicepoint claims not to be a Credit Reporting Agency, so negative credit information does not age off their reports.

Federal law gives all persons the right to one free credit report per Reporting Agency per person per year. (Pay no attention to those annoying kids on teevee - the report available from "Free Credit Report Dot Com" isn't free. Go to

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and follow the link to the Free Credit Report and you will get what you seek, without having to enroll in any "triple advantage plan" -- but I digress).

If you go to Choicepoint's web site, they used to offer the ability for people to PURCHASE their own report. Cost something like fifteen dollars, last I noticed, if I recall correctly.

Regarding the possibility of suing these loathsome creatures out of existence - good luck with that.

The Government is for the most part no longer on your side.

Thanks to what Chuck Brown calls "the Corrupt Nexus" between regulators and regulated, and between lawmakers and those wealthy entities which donate to lawmakers, laws are rarely enacted and regulations are rarely written and almost never applied against the interest of donors - plus of course for most of the last forty years we've had our federal judges appointed by people who believe Government *can't* work - is it any wonder when it doesn't?