Bob Sullivan:

Pierce said she felt an uneasy twinge in her stomach as she began to flip the pages. A dozen former addresses were listed, along with neighbors and their phone numbers. Almost 20 people were listed as relatives — and their neighbors were listed, too. There were cars she supposedly owned, businesses she supposedly worked for.
But the more closely she looked, the more alarmed she became: The report was littered with mistakes.
ChoicePoint, the now embattled database giant, aggregates data from hundreds of sources on millions of Americans. The reports are then sold to thousands of companies and government agencies that want to know more about their clients, customers, or employees.

Steve Rubel summarizes Walt Mossberg’s comments on Google’s AutoLink/Adlink toolbar.

Well done! Check it out and send the link around.

Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder famously talked about not “being evil“. Google’s new Autolink (“AdLink”) unfortunately is evil…. Technorati | Dave Winer. Don’t use Google’s Toolbar.

Robert O’Harrow, Jr digs further into the Choicepoint mess:

But the man’s call last fall was different, according to a detective’s description of the encounter and testimony presented in a later court hearing. Unknown to ChoicePoint, the caller was not Garrett, an actor in the Los Angeles area. Police said he was a con artist involved in a vast identity-theft scam that succeeded in making off with records of at least 145,000 people. The real Garrett was just another victim.
The imposter’s attempt to gain access to even more files would not only expose the scam, but spark a national outrage and congressional hearings over whether the nation’s growing commercial data industry is doing enough to guard personal information.

Here’s how the scam worked.

Bruce Schneier on the recent choicepoint fiasco (and the company’s spin).

Cory Doctorow:

Telus began blocking selected Internet connection to home computers. The blocking is invisible to most users, but all it takes is a cruise around message boards frequented by tech-savvy users?or a chat with a local geek?to know that Telus high-speed service isn?t what it used to be . . . Blocked ports include those used to listen for incoming email, FTP (file transfer), Telnet (remote login), and Internet Relay Chat client traffic, as well as incoming World Wide Web connections. Users can access other servers providing those services, but cannot provide them from their own computers. In other words, a Telus customer can be a client, but not a server.

I emailed Mayor Dave seeking to insure that Madison’s forthcoming WiFi service will be fully, 2-way…

Doc Searls has a useful post on brandjacking.

I no longer keep, much less answer, email from my bank (which, to keep from making things worse, I won’t name). Nor from any other bank. Nor from eBay or PayPal.
Except for their Web sites, all those companies have had their brands hijacked on the Net by Phishers and Pharmers.

Verne Kopytoff visits with some of the Choicepoint victims.