Firm wants a base for your data

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

A giant corporation that owns major hotels, mortgage lenders, real-estate companies and tax-accounting services is getting into other business. Yours.

The Cendant Corp. wants to compile a massive database of its customers. The database would include more than 200 pieces of personal information, including credit-card numbers, e-mail addresses, driver's license numbers and financial information such as income and mortgage balances.

The data would be collected from all of the corporation's businesses and put into one place to "determine customer buying patterns and behavior," according to a draft proposal obtained by The Washington Times.

It is legal for the company to collect and compile the information into one data center, and a Cendant spokesman called it a "standard practice among virtually every large company from around the world to use databases to better serve customers."

But privacy advocates and legislators say the "standard practice" is becoming a dangerous trend, not just an invasion of privacy. For example, insurance companies use the information to weed out unwanted customers by looking at unhealthy buying habits, such as purchases of alcohol, cigarettes and red meat.

The Privacy Act of 1974 prevents the federal government from gathering information on citizens, but it doesn't stop it from looking at the information gathered by the private sector. Such information also has been used by:

• The Drug Enforcement Agency, which has subpoenaed grocery-store customer databases in looking for large purchases of plastic bags to target drug dealers.

• The Internal Revenue Service, which has turned to data-mining companies in looking for individuals living lavishly and buying expensive items while underreporting income. All but one direct-marketing company refused to cooperate with the agency. After tests proved inconclusive, the project was abandoned in the 1990s.

Members of Congress and privacy advocates say privacy laws need to be updated to address these growing trends and advances in technology.