U.S. government purchase data on Mexico's 65 million registered Voters

Sale of Mexican voter data raises storm

Story by : CR Staff  

05/01/03: (Guadalajara Reporter) A probe has been launched into how 
the Atlanta-based corporation ChoicePoint Inc. was able to purchase 
data on Mexico's 65 million registered voters as well as six million 
licensed drivers in Mexico City.  

According to an investigation carried out by the Mexico City 
newspaper Milenio, ChoicePoint was commissioned by the U.S. 
government to obtain the data.  

Mexican legislators want President Vicente Fox to ask his U.S. 
counterpart for what reason the U.S. government needs this 
confidential information.  

ChoicePoint is the only data-gathering company that specializes 
in acquiring information on foreign nationals in general and 
Latinos in particular.  

According to Milenio, low-ranking Mexican government employees 
routinely sell electronic information to data-gathering groups 
in a clandestine manner and pocket the proceeds. ChoicePoint 
also offers information on 90 percent of large corporations 
operating in Mexico, disclosing data on names of leading executives, 
phone numbers, electronic systems and levels of capitalization.  

This surveillance of Latin Americans began September 25, 2001, 
exactly two weeks after the terrorist attacks. On that date the 
U.S. Department of Justice awarded ChoicePoint a 67-million dollar 
contract for providing information on Mexico and other Latin 
countries. Though the contract expires July 31, 2005, the government 
enriched Choice-Point to the tune of another 11 million dollars on 
April 8, 2002. 

James Lee, a spokesman for the company, defended ChoicePoint's 
activities on grounds that its data-gathering was a valuable tool 
in the fight against terrorism and organized crime. Lee declared 
that information obtained by his company "can be used in any type 
of criminal investigation, whether it involves terrorism or some 
other type of crime. It is useful in identifying suspicious individuals 
and in some cases it can even pinpoint their whereabouts."  

These protestations fell on deaf ears in Mexico. Raul Carranca, a 
well-known jurist, said that ChoicePoint's purchase of names in the 
Federal Electoral Register and of drivers' licenses constituted an 
invasion of Mexico's sovereignty. He added that under the Federal 
Penal Code an offender could receive up to 12 years in prison for 
damaging, destroying or illegally extracting data from a government
informational system for reasons of personal gain.  

Particularly biting were the comments of columnist Marcela Gomez 
Zalce. In Acentos, her widely-read column, Gomez Zalce expressed the 
opinion that data obtained by ChoicePoint would end up in the hands 
of the CIA, FBI and DEA. As for the protestations of such parliamentary 
groups as National Action Party and the formerly ruling Institutional 
Revolutionary Party (PRI) that they would move toward protecting the 
privacy of Mexicans, she said that this was a classic case of covering 
the well after the baby has drowned -- Spanish version of "locking the 
stable door after the horse has been stolen."  

In addition to Mexico, ChoicePoint's shadow has fallen over Brazil, 
Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador 
and Nicaragua. However, the company has discontinued its role in 
Argentina, due to lack of demand and a strict new law relating to 
privacy.  

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Source: Information Clearinghouse ...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3186.htm 


Cheers, Steve..

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