Senator questions FBI on ChoicePoint contract

IDG News Service - A top Democrat in the U.S. Senate questioned Wednesday why the U.S. Department of Justice continues to do business with data broker ChoicePoint Inc. a year after the company announced a data breach potentially affecting 145,000 U.S. residents.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) blasted the DOJ and the FBI division for a recent five-year, $12 million contract for ChoicePoint to provide investigative analysis software to the FBI. In February 2005, ChoicePoint announced a data breach after criminals set up fake businesses that purchased private information from the data broker.

"What in heaven's name are we doing allowing someone as careless as ChoicePoint to be in control of our data?" Leahy said at a subcommittee hearing on the DOJ's 2007 budget. "I consider them the poster child for lax security protection."

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended the contract, announced Monday. The ChoicePoint contract represented the best value for the FBI, and it covers software and technology, not data services, he said.

Security and privacy issues were "taken into account in connection with this contract," Gonzales added. "Obviously, there were mistakes made by ChoicePoint, and they suffered the consequences for that."

ChoicePoint, in a statement, also defended the contract, saying it was for technology not data services. "This technology and similar products we offer the law enforcement community in this country and around the world help safeguard [Leahy's] family as well as ours," the statement said. "It is indisputable that ChoicePoint’s technology and yes, its data, aid in stopping crime and capturing criminals."

Leahy's questions came a day after the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report saying the DoJ and other federal agencies contract with some data resellers that do not comply with federal rules governing the collection of data. Data brokers often do not restrict their collection of personal data, as required in federal fair information practices law, and often do not inform the individuals whose data they are collecting, GAO said. DOJ and three other agencies spent about $30 million with data resellers in fiscal year 2005, the report said.

Leahy said he was concerned about the GAO report. "The Justice Department ... often doesn't even follow federal rules -- doesn't follow its own laws -- in protecting Americans' privacy," Leahy said. "You see my concern."

Gonzales said he had not reviewed the GAO report, but if the DOJ was breaking privacy rules, it would fix the problem. "I share your concern," he told Leahy. "There should be only one standard, that is, what the law requires."