May 19, 2005 | Data Report Report Card

It's long been known that commercial data records, such as those Choicepoint uses as part of its background check service, contain inaccurate or plainly incorrect information.

Linda Ackerman and Deborah Pierce, the minds behind PrivacyActivism, just released a very small study confirming this, finding that 73% of ChoicePoint's biographical reports and 67% of Acxiom's have errors.

Even more telling is that Acxiom still doesn't care about serving citizens. While Choicepoint responded to 100% of Privacy Activism's request and provided reports in an average of 19 days.

For its part, Acxiom took an average of 89 days to deliver a report when it did so. But almost half the time (45%) it failed to respond at all.

This is very consistent with my experience from last year when Acxiom took months to respond to requests and though they claimed to have responded to my request, they only did do so after repeated calls to their chief privacy officer, Jennifer Barret.

Acxiom also claims to allow you to opt out of one of their databases, but only after sending you a bevy of forms intended to tell you how stupid a decision that would be.

If you persist and send in the form, it goes to a post office box. For all I know, it just sits there, since the company sends no confirmation.

If you want to test the system yourself (costs $5 for your report from Acxiom), contact their Consumer Advocate Hotline at 1-877-774-2094 (more info here). Once you get someone on the phone, you can ask for an opt-out form or a "Reference Information Report" form.

Once that's done, start in on a couple of Russian novels so you'll have something to distract you for three months, while Acxiom bureaucrats decide when and if to fulfill your request.

I wonder if it takes that long for Acxiom to deliver your name, purchase history, social security number and family details to marketers and government agencies?

Posted by Ryan Singel at May 19, 2005 09:15 AM

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It's long been known that commercial data records, such as those Choicepoint uses as part of its background check service, contain inaccurate or plainly incorrect information. [Read More]

Tracked on May 19, 2005 11:41 AM