Big Brother's Little Helpers: How ChoicePoint and Other Commercial Data Brokers Collect and Package Your Data for Law Enforcement
Chris Jay Hoofnagle · University of North Carolina School of Law Scholarship Repository (University of North Carolina Hospitals) · 2003
Lawmakers should revisit federal privacy laws to account for private-sector database companies that sell personal information to the government for law enforcement purposes.Commercial data brokers (CDBs) operate websites tailored to law enforcement that enable police to download comprehensive dossiers on almost any adult.The CDBs have artfully dodged privacy laws, leaving a void where individuals' personal information may be sold and accessed without adequate protections, and creating serious risks to privacy and due process.The author argues that CDBs have become arms of the government because they perform law enforcement functions for the police, and thus should be required to comply with the Privacy Act of 1974.Furthermore, the nation should revisit policies surrounding access to public records, as the dossiers increasingly are drawn from public registers.2 Daniel J. Solove, Digital Dossiers and the Dissipation of Fourth Amendment