Democrats lambaste ChoicePoint data leak
Company's privacy snafu raises hackles of some politicians, who demand investigation into "terrorism risk."
Declan McCullagh Former Senior Writer
Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET. You can e-mail him or follow him on Twitter as declanm. Declan previously was a reporter for Time and the Washington bureau chief for Wired and wrote the Taking Liberties section and Other People's Money column for CBS News' Web site.
ChoicePoint's has raised the hackles of some Democrats in Congress, who are demanding an investigation into the "terrorism risk" posed by information brokers. On Thursday, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida and Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi said they are planning to ask the Department of Homeland Security and the Government Accounting Office to look into how terrorists could use ChoicePoint and similar companies to sneak into the United States and maintain their cover.
Both Nelson and Thompson are the top Democrats on homeland security and terrorism panels. But Nelson seems to be wielding the threat of terrorism as a justification to target the newly embattled industry. He has already been talking about amending the Fair Credit Reporting Act in a way that could extend regulations to data brokers.