(Washington, DC) The Attorney General for the District of Columbia, Linda Singer, along with the attorneys general of 43 other states, announced a settlement with ChoicePoint to resolve allegations that the company failed to adequately maintain the privacy and security of consumers' personally identifiable information that was in its control.

ChoicePoint is a provider of identification and credential verification services to businesses, government and non-profit organizations. ChoicePoint, among other things, collects, maintains, and distributes consumers' personally identifiable information. In February 2005, ChoicePoint announced that criminals posing as legitimate businesses gained access to consumers' personally identifiable information. In the wake of these crimes, ChoicePoint, using the California breach notification law as a guide, mailed more than 145,000 notices to consumers across the country whose information may have been viewed or acquired by the criminals.

As part of this settlement, ChoicePoint will make significant, ongoing changes in the way that the company credentials new customers who have access to personally identifiable information. For the first time, a data broker has agreed to safeguard publicly available information using the same credentialing methods as it uses to safeguard financial information that is protected by law. Certain sensitive publicly available information, including Social Security numbers, will now receive greater protection.

"Many businesses ask consumers to provide their social security numbers," said General Singer. "I am pleased that under this settlement this critical personal information will receive additional protections."

Also as part of this settlement, ChoicePoint will pay $500,000 to the states.