NYT: How Billions of Pieces of Information Are Bought and Sold

The New York Times is continuing their coverage of the Senate hearings on the ChoicePoint/BofA/Lexis incidents with an article on what information is bought and sold, and where it comes from:

The New York Times > Business > How Billions of Pieces of Information Are Bought and Sold (reg'n req'd):

"How much data on how many Americans are they dealing with?' Sen. Richard C. Shelby, the Alabama Republican, asked the head of the Federal Trade Commission last Thursday, during a hearing on identity theft and the data broker industry.

The F.T.C.'s chairwoman, Deborah Platt Majoras, explained that the industry's scope was difficult to gauge. But individual data brokers 'can have billions of pieces of data regarding consumers,' she said.

'A treasure trove of all the financial privacy information, in a sense, isn't it?' Mr. Shelby asked.

'Yes, indeed,' said Ms. Platt Majoras, who delivered similar testimony before a House subcommittee on Tuesday of this week..."