http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGACRBLDHED.html NEW YORK (AP) - For years now, Americans who happen to use a credit card or order a magazine have left a financial identity trail that has been catalogued by database companies like ChoicePoint Inc., then resold to the U.S. government. Federal and state governments pay about $50 million a year to comb through ChoicePoint's databanks, also marketed under such names as AutoTrack, KnowX.com and ScreenNow. The company compiles and sells personal information on U.S. residents, such as motor vehicle and credit records, car and boat registrations, liens and deed transfers and military records. The files can be used by the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service or Internal Revenue Service to check employee backgrounds, track fugitives or piece together clues to a person's potential for terrorism. Journalists, including The Associated Press, also use ChoicePoint's data for researching stories. New federal demand for the data can be seen in forthcoming programs such as Total Information Awareness and Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II, which seek to prevent acts of terror by poring over financial transactions, court records and government watch lists. ChoicePoint president Doug Curling said in a conference call with financial analysts last month that the government prohibited him from discussing any role in the CAPPS II program. Privacy experts are dismayed by the U.S. government's use of such commercial data. They say it circumvents the spirit of the 1974 Privacy Act, which prohibits routine data collection on ordinary Americans. "The Privacy Act passed because of fears in the 1960s of a federal data center. That data center was created after all, but it's in private hands," said Chris Hoofnagle of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. After the Sept. 11 debacle, law enforcers and government agencies clamored for data from commercial data merchants. The new Transportation Security Agency used ChoicePoint to screen some 300,000 job applicants, airport workers and pilots. ChoicePoint, a publicly held company, was spun off of credit reporting company Equifax in 1997 and quickly began gobbling up competitors, swallowing over 30 to date. Earnings climbed 62 percent in four years, from $466 million in 1998 to $753 million in 2002, with its stock price up some 300 percent since it began trading. The company's computers in Boca Raton, Fla., and Alpharetta, Ga., are stocked with more than 100 terabytes of storage. A forthcoming data center will add tens of terabytes more, said marketing director James Lee. ChoicePoint is the U.S. immigration officer's favorite private data tool, but it's not the only one, said Thomas Durand, assistant chief inspector of the new U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, which absorbed some of the INS functions. Inspectors also use LexisNexis, a top competitor. Durand said marketing data company infoUSA is also looking to sell to the government. "They've given us free passwords and user accounts to see if we find it interesting," Durand said. Problems with accuracy have dogged Choicepoint. In the most famous case, a ChoicePoint subsidiary mistakenly flagged hundreds of eligible voters for removal from Florida's voter rolls in 2000. The voters were unable to cast ballots in the presidential election that brought George W. Bush into the White House. If ChoicePoint's data are used to block foreigners from entering the United States, Lee said he hopes immigration officials give travelers the chance to challenge the accuracy of information used to confront them. Only the subject of the background check can verify the information, not ChoicePoint or the U.S. government, Lee said. "The key to any of this is giving the actual citizen the right to see it and fix it," Lee said. "We do everything to ensure our customers are following privacy policies. But there is still going to be human error. And the outcome isn't going to be what people would like." ..... Hmm, password protected access, eh? ..... "Montag, why do you burn books ?" "It's a job like any other, pay is good and there is a lot of variety". -F451