Big Brother Inc. Interesting article on a company which is hired to be Big Brother.

ChoicePoint's mission is simple. The company amasses oodles of gigabytes of little pieces of just about every American's existence. Some of the information may be public and obvious, like property records or criminal histories. But one might mistakenly consider other pieces confidential or inconsequential, such as DNA samples turned over in a criminal investigation, or responses to a magazine survey asking where you last bought toothpaste, and what brand you chose.

ChoicePoint then packages the pieces for sale -- to employers, insurance companies, direct marketers, state governments and at least 30 federal agencies. Corporate clients buy access to records to investigate job applicants -- or, in the case of the 90 percent of American insurance carriers who do business with ChoicePoint, to determine if an individual seeking car or homeowner's coverage might be a risk. If ChoicePoint shares your records with companies with whom you're seeking insurance or a job, you must first give ChoicePoint permission.

posted by mt at 13:56

The ultimate password cracker...
posted by mt at 14:10

Scary stat: "In fact, at least a third of all spam circulating on the Internet is now sent from or relayed by personal home computers that have been taken over, said Jesse Dougherty, director of development at Sophos, an antivirus and antispam company. "
posted by mt at 10:53