According to Wired News, a California woman has filed the first lawsuit against ChoicePoint (a US data aggregator) for fraud and negligence in the wake of the company’s recent disclosure that it sold personal information about more than 145,000 people to identity thieves.

Choicepoint says "the incident was not a breach of ChoicePoint’s network or a “hacking” incident, and did not involve any of ChoicePoint’s customer information."

An investigation revealed that unknown perpetrators had used stolen
identities to open 50 customer accounts with ChoicePoint to purchase
data on at least 145,000 individuals. They purchased data for more than
a year before ChoicePoint discovered the fraud.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse produced this report on action US consumers needed to take.

The Choicepoint case has provoked a renewed discussion about database privacy.

This incident is being used to support a recent report that you are safer online than offline.

BeSpacific has collected some links on identity theft and sale of personal data here and here.

In Australia, you can contact Baycorp Advantage to obtain your credit file to find out what it knows about you. (Fee:$23.00)