» 2005 » July - Private Investigator | Public Records | Internet Search | Privacy | Reporting | Personal Information | Adoption

~ addition to google alerts ~

By Tamara Thompson Investigations

You’re probably using the fabulous Google Alerts service if you track the appearance of keywords on websites or in the news. The ever inventive folks at Google have just added the ability for you to get notified when your keywords appear in any of the public discussions at Google Groups. [From Internet Research Weekly]

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~ some prison inmate and staff records are public - in Washington State ~

By Tamara Thompson Investigations

The medical records of unidentified prisoners and the identities of prison medical workers in disciplinary records are public records, according to the Washington State Supreme Court, in a case brought by a prison newspaper. Read the article

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~ active military free lookup ~

By Tamara Thompson Investigations

The U.S. Department of Defense has established a website to enable compliance with the Service Members’ Civil Relief Act which, with a last name and social security number, will confirm whether an individual is on active duty with the U.S. military. And it’s free! [Thanks to Robert Scott for this tip.]

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~ will the feds require states to use private data brokers? ~

By Tamara Thompson Investigations

The Federal government may, once again, reach out to private companies — ChoicePoint and LexisNexis, the large data brokers, to verify personal information that the government needs but doesn’t have the means to gather. While the data brokers are under threat of restrictive legislation, the U.S. government is seeking their assistance in identity verification.

Congress is considering forcing states to use data brokers to help screen applicants for commercial driver’s licenses, a potentially lucrative development for an industry under scrutiny for how it handles personal information.

It would be an extremely dangerous, but not unjustifiable maneuver, for the Feds to retain use of the public record information while restricting public access.

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~ choicepoint lives to make another dollar ~

By Tamara Thompson Investigations

The Motley Fool assesses ChoicePoint’s financials and finds, all in all, the company isn’t doing too bad.

Litigation risk certainly exists. Regulatory risk, too. But I’d submit that any company that can, in the face of such troubles, still produce a 5.7% increase in year-over-year free cash flow (ChoicePoint generated $82.1 million in 1H 2005) will find a way to pull through.

Not too bad for a company under attack!

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~ congress and data security ~

By Tamara Thompson Investigations

Catch the webcast of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing, Data Security: The Discussion Draft of Data Protection Legislation, this Thursday at 10am. I assume that’s D.C. time. The Washington-centric folks don’t say. The Hearing web page states that the list of witnesses is not yet finalized. Hummm. I guess you can just drop in and have your say!

July 28 UPDATE: Senator Bill Nelson introduced an amendment to SB 1408 that restricts the sale of social security numbers, which was accepted and passed this morning. It’s still subject to further changes. Read this news report.

July 29 UPDATE: SB 1408 is scheduled to be introduced in September to the Congress. The Committee on Energy and Commerce press release states: ” The bill requires information brokers to annually submit their security policy to the FTC for audit. Information brokers must also disclose what personal data they hold to consumers who ask for that information.”

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~ next legislative hurdle: cell phone records ~

By Tamara Thompson Investigations

It seems that everytime EPIC concocts a medicinal potion to treat threats to privacy there is a legislator standing by to ensure that it is broadly disseminated. The current danger: online sales of cell phone call logs. Charles Schumer is taking the EPIC proposal and turning it into legislation.

There are many types of records that should not be sold over the Internet to anyone who can pay a fee. The unwise course of action would be for Congress to bar legitimate uses of cell phone records for legal investigations. The Senate is attempting to keep a cell phone directory out of the public domain too.

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~ utah examines redacting public records ~

By Tamara Thompson Investigations

Utah’s Government Records Access Management Task Force (GRAMA) is discovering the tortuous variables presented in redacting information from public records. The task force is conducting a series of meetings. The issues are reported in this article.

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~ ohio police officer files available under the state public records act ~

By Tamara Thompson Investigations

If you read your Ohio Public Records Act handbook, which I reported on here, you might have discovered that Ohio police officer personnel files are available. The News-Herald reports on the various ways police departments organize their files.

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