FC: Acxiom's modest proposal: Background checks on air passengers

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Background on Axciom, which I invite to reply to the list (I will 
distribute Acxiom's response unedited):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/frompost/march98/privacy8.htm
"You've probably never heard of Acxiom Corp., a giant information service 
tucked near the rolling Ozark foothills. But chances are that Acxiom knows 
quite a lot about you"

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,42406,00.html
"The [FTC] took a hard look at the likes of Acxiom and Abacus, massive 
marketing databases that cover the purchasing habits of at least 90 percent 
of America's 100 million households."

http://www.cnn.com/1999/TECH/computing/12/03/aussie.bigbro.idg/
"Australia data warehouse raises privacy concerns"

-Declan

---

From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: Yahoo - Acxiom Executive Outlines Measures For Using Data to Fight 
War on Terro
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 09:41:44 -0500

Background checks for plane tickets, oh my.......

 http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/011205/52444_1.html

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 5, 2001--Information is the most
powerful weapon in America's fight against terrorism, but its potential
is not yet being unleashed, according to Jerry Jones, legal and business
development leader at AcxiomR Corporation (Nasdaq:ACXM - news).

``Technology used every day by the finance and business industries can
be applied to enhance airline safety,'' Jones said. ``When you apply for
an insurance policy today, your application and identity are subjected
to a computerized background check or risk assessment. But if you
purchase a ticket to fly across the United States, no such data
verification of your identity occurs. Why? Because airport security
today remains overly focused on finding weapons as opposed to finding
terrorists.'' 




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------