For many victims of foreclosure, keeping the fact that they are behind in payments a secret is one of their main concerns. However, a special report by TV news station CNBC examines the relatively new industry of private data mining, including the gathering of such personal financial information as mortgage payment history, use of credit, and banking information.
This results in a loss of privacy for nearly all citizens, where billions of transactions are gathered on a daily basis. From Event Data Recorders in car air bag systems, which collect data on driving patterns just before accidents, to GPS technology, which can track rental car activity, more is being done every day to take away peoples' sense of privacy. Even laser printers made by such names as Xerox, Dell, HP, and Canon embed a secret code on each page they print, which can tell the FBI and other regulatory agencies the serial number of the printer, and the date and time a page is printed. The same goes for digital camera photos and even CD burners, which print the serial number of the burner on every CD that is created; this means that a pirated CD can almost certainly be tracked to the exact computer that it was copied from.
Another innocuous erosion of privacy is in the area of cell phone usage. A program called ULocate can track individual cell phones through GPS devices in the phones themselves, and cell phone companies are able to track their customers even without GPS. As long as a cell phone is turned on, the provider can locate the device because the phone communicates with the towers to receive information, such as signal strength and incoming and outgoing calls.
In terms of the detailed financial and personal habits of U.S. citizens, numerous private companies have begun collecting and compiling billions of records. ChoicePoint maintains a database on nearly every single person, including nearly 17 billion records of every aspect of their lives. They sell this information to other companies, who may use it for background checks, direct marketing, or for use in criminal investigations.
And although hundreds of companies have had millions of data records stolen, or have simply lost them, government agencies are relying more and more upon the records these data miners store. The agencies can more easily locate property ownership information, social security numbers, employment records, driving records, and other personal information.
Two more data miners similar to ChoicePoint are Verfications, Inc., and Acxiom. Acxiom collects nearly 3 billion records every day of transactions that people engage in, from public records to private transactions at banks, telecom companies, and retailers, among others. This data collection is supposedly to help businesses analyze customers and their behavior, by looking at their income, number of children, and personal interests.
Search engines are also major data collectors, although they are not primarily in the business of selling this information. A search of Google can locate detailed personal information from millions of websites; information that was not originally intended to be shared with the general public. This may include actual credit reports, phone bills, and property information. Also, Google stores records of every single search that is made in their search engine and these searches can be tracked to the individual searcher. These searches are also admissible as evidence in criminal trials. There are over 200 million searches on Google every day that are stored forever by Google.
The behavior of America Online subscribers can also be used by courts as evidence. AoL works with law enforcement agencies to the point of testifying against their paying subscribers. The company keeps records of emails and can identify the user by their IP address.
There is also a growing problem of theft of personal information by the use of pretexting. This technique involves calling a company and pretending to be the client whose information is the target, and doing whatever possible to get private information. In particular, this has become an issue with cell phone records being stolen. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that pretexting, in most instances, is not illegal.
Biometrics, another topic the report details, involves using biological properties to identify people, such as finger prints, eye retina scans, or facial recognition software. These techniques are being used in nearly every aspect of American life, from border patrol to the hiring of new teachers, and in airports, police stations, and even the State Department.
Possibly the worst aspect of this mass collection of data is that the practice has eroded the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees citizens protection from illegal government search and seizure. Because personal data is collected by third party corporations, the data collected can be bought by government agencies and their ability to review personal information otherwise unobtainable is not protected. Third parties can release any and all information to government law enforcement agencies.
A final issue is that of RFID chips, implantable computer chips that store personal information that is tied to the chip, including names, social security numbers, employment information, or other data. These chips can be implanted in humans just below the skin and can be read from a distance. While supposedly secure, there is no guarantee that criminals will not one day be able to hack into an implanted chip and steal the personal information embedded onto it.
In fact, the FDA has already approved an implantable RFID chip, made by the company VeriChip. The head of the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, at the time of approval of the chip was Tommy Thompson, who now sits on the board of VeriChip, and who is now contemplating a bid for president in 2008.
All of this makes the situation of being in foreclosure even more difficult to endure. Hundreds of data collection companies and their clients have access to detailed information about every transaction a homeowner makes, from placing a call to their lender's loss mitigation department, to bouncing a check for the mortgage payment. With public and private information being marketed to both unscrupulous investors and other foreclosure scams, it becomes nearly impossible for a foreclosure victim to pick the right course to stop foreclosure.
And the longer the foreclosure situation exists, the more detailed credit and financial information will be entered into the databases. High-interest credit card offers may dramatically increase, or predatory payday loan offers may arrive in the mail, all seeming to give the homeowner just one more chance to stop foreclosure and avoid losing their homes, even for one more month. However, with so many third parties already possibly aware of the foreclosure situation, it is in the best interest of the foreclosure victim to do enough research on legitimate ways to save their homes. The erosion of privacy may make the process to stop foreclosure more difficult, but every homeowner must make the effort to know as much about the companies they are dealing with as these companies know about the homeowner. Only in this way can the person in danger of losing their home successfully stop foreclosure and protect even more of their private information from entering into the hands of data miners, who will sell that information to companies intent on taking advantage of homeowners in foreclosure.
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