Who's guarding your data in the cybervault? - USATODAY.com: "ALPHARETTA, Ga. -- In a remarkable turnaround, ChoicePoint, the giant data broker excoriated two years ago for its lack of precautions as it went about gathering and selling personal data, has recast itself as a model corporate citizen.

California's milestone data-theft disclosure law forced ChoicePoint in February 2005 to reveal that it had sold sensitive information for at least 166,000 people to a Nigerian con artist posing as a debt collector. The Federal Trade Commission hit ChoicePoint with a record $10 million fine and ordered it to set aside $5 million to aid data breach victims.

The once-obscure data broker, tucked away in a nondescript business park 20 miles north of Atlanta, also embraced extensive reforms. The result: ChoicePoint is regarded by a dozen leading privacy advocates interviewed by USA TODAY as the most responsible company among dozens in the lightly regulated, fast-growing field of aggregating and selling sensitive information.

'ChoicePoint transformed itself from a poster child of data breaches to a role model for data security and privacy practices,' says Gartner analyst Avivah Litan.

Despite ChoicePoint's makeover, there's rising concern among privacy experts and legislators about the frenetic business of assembling and distributing personal data. Everyone, it seems, wants Social Security numbers, birth dates, maiden names, criminal records, civil judgments and real estate records. Lenders, landlords and employers want as much data as they can get their hands on to size up applicants; law enforcement officials want it to track down criminals and terrorists. And cybercriminals are boosting demand for personal information as they concoct new Internet-enabled scams.

Data brokers such as ChoicePoint and LexisNexis assemble names, addresses, property records and other public records for use by everyone from employers to law enforcement agencies.

The Big Three credit-reporting agencies -- Equifax,Experianand TransUnion -- have a narrower focus. They compile data about car loans, credit card debt, mortgages and more to determine credit scores for lending institutions.

With a patchwork of state laws on data handling in place -- and most data brokers just beginning to take basic precautions -- the average citizen increasingly faces a new kind of multi-tiered jeopardy, law enforcement officials and privacy advocates say. Identity thieves often muck up data dossiers, while data brokers have little incentive to emphasize security or accuracy.

'You and I as consumers don't even know where all this information comes from or how it gets corrupted, and we have no way to fix it,' says Mari Frank, an attorney and privacy consultant. 'You can be denied credit or a job; you can be totally defamed; and you have no way to access the data to fix it -- that's what's scary about the lack of privacy in the information age.'
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