Identity Theft & Privacy: , Opinion:

Heads up...

...those folks who have been making money selling your information without even asking you are now selling it without even checking on the legitimacy of the buyer:

ChoicePoint: More ID theft warnings
ID company says criminals able to obtain almost 140,000 names, addresses and other information.
February 17, 2005: 1:10 PM EST

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - ChoicePoint Inc., a national provider of identification and credential verification services, says it will send an additional 110,000 statements to people informing them of possible identity theft after a group of well-organized criminals was able to obtain personal information on almost 140,000 consumers through the company.

According to a statement on the ChoicePoint (Research) Web site, the incident was not the result of its systems being hacked but rather caused by criminals posing as legitimate businesses seeking to gain access to personal information.

ChoicePoint said the criminals may have gained access to people's names, addresses, Social Security numbers and credit reports.

I have a fundamental problem with someone making money by selling my personal, private information without my consent.

I have a BIGGER problem with someone making money by selling my personal, private information without my consent and not being careful about who they sell that information to, especially when they don't pay me to recompense the enormous amount of time required to correct the resulting identity theft problem.

I guess the people who say there is no "right to privacy" are correct, at least in how our private information is currently bought and sold without any consent. I just wonder what they will say when they have to spend hours on the phone and writing letters to cope with the theft of their identity.