News briefs
ChoicePoint has agreed to pay $10 million in fines, the largest civil penalty ever imposed by the Federal Trade Commission, and $5 million in consumer compensation, to settle charges that the data broker’s record-handling procedures violated consumers’ privacy rights.
“The message to ChoicePoint and others should be clear: Consumers’ private data must be protected from thieves,” said Deborah Platt Majoras, chairwoman of the FTC.
The company admitted last year that a data breach compromised the personal information of at least 163,000 customers, with 800 becoming identity theft victims, the FTC said.