ChoicePoint

ChoicePoint is a U.S. company that specializes in the collection of data on individuals or companies. These data are sold to governmental and non -governmental organizations. ChoicePoint draws the data not only from various publicly available sources, but also from private databases.

The company should have an estimated 17 billion single sources with a total of 250 terabytes of data. About 220 million people, it should already give entries, this also includes highly confidential information, such as criminal records, drug testing or ownership of equity securities. The data is sold to approximately 100,000 customers, of which approximately 7000 public or state institutions should be (as at 30 March 2005).

ChoicePoint has fallen in the recent past in criticism, as hackers managed to access the confidential data to gain and use them improperly. Very controversial is the acquisition of information about non -US citizens for the U.S. government.