Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ogicse!cs.uoregon.edu!ns.uoregon.edu!milton!cyberoid From: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: Those (henious) Information Brokers; who are they? Message-ID: <1991May7.032951.18221@milton.u.washington.edu> Date: 7 May 91 03:29:51 GMT References: <57Hy12w164w@dogface> <4487.2825426c@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> Distribution: na Organization: Human Interface Technology Lab, Univ. of Wash., Seattle Lines: 14 Information brokers do not only deal in such banal data as addresses and phones, annoying as that may be. For $200, one can get an account with one of the franchised information brokers and use a personal computer to assemble a dossier on an individual that includes everything from house buying habits to criminal record (arrests if these are not deleted from the record) to interviews with neighbors about the person. And some of the more dubious services claim to have access to credit reports, various blacklists (like people who file unemployment claims against employers), and all sorts of nice things. No one checks this information and, once it is in circulation, anything goes. Bob Jacobson --