As database companies restrict access to Social Security numbers private
By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | July 10, 2005
The campaign to stamp out identity theft may claim some unexpected victims
– the nation’s private investigators.
Modern PIs do a lot of their work with computers, using commercial databases
to obtain Social Security numbers. These can be used to help track down
missing persons or locate witnesses to a crime. But investigators say that
in the aftermath of recent identity theft scandals, database companies are
cracking down in ways that make it harder for them to do their work. And
they worry that proposed federal legislation will make matters worse.
‘’It’s like throwing the baby out with the bath water,” said Bruce Hulme,
chairman of the legislative committee of the National Council of
Investigation and Security Services in Baltimore. The group is lobbying
Congress to prevent passage of a bill introduced in April by Representative
Clay Shaw of Florida, a Republican, which would tighten restrictions on the
sale of Social Security numbers.
Hulme said that many of his members rely on Social Security numbers, and
that without full access to them, they’ll lose their ability to crack cases.
Investigators are also worried about a similar bill introduced last month by
Republican US Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Democratic Senator
Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
No action has been taken on the Specter-Leahy bill. But Gail Gitcho, a
spokeswoman for Shaw, said his legislation had been substantially modified
from the version first introduced last year, and will now place fewer
restrictions on private detectives. For example, the bill would allow the US
attorney general to issue regulations granting the investigators access to
Social Security numbers. But Hulme and others want a specific ‘’carve-out”
in the language of the bill, allowing database companies to sell detailed
personal information to licensed private investigators.
Even if these bills are defeated or modified to ease the detectives’
concerns, they’ll still face tougher restrictions imposed by the database
companies themselves. Firms like LexisNexis and
which they sell to businesses, government agencies, journalists and private
investigators.
But these companies have been hit hard by reports that their records have
been misplaced or stolen. In February, ChoicePoint admitted that criminals
posing as legitimate business people had purchased files on about 140,000
people, some of whom were later defrauded. In March, LexisNexis revealed
that someone with a stolen account password had swiped the files of about
310,000 people.
John Buckley, president of the Licensed Private Detectives Association of
Massachusetts, said people in the PI business weren’t surprised by the
problems at LexisNexis and ChoicePoint. ‘’It’s ridiculous how they’ve been
giving this information to everybody,” he said. ‘’We’ve always been
concerned about it.”
But after the recent thefts, database companies have begun to crack down.
For example, last year LexisNexis bought Seisint, a Florida database firm
popular with private eyes because it sold personal data including Social
Security numbers. Soon after the Seisint acquisition, the data thieves
struck.
Now LexisNexis has modified its service. Its database listings include
names, addresses and phone numbers, but the last four digits of each Social
Security number are deleted. LexisNexis does provide more detailed
information to law enforcement agencies and financial services firms
investigating fraud. But it will no longer provide full Social Security
numbers and driver’s license numbers to private investigators. ChoicePoint
has adopted a similar policy.
‘’We’re under a lot of pressure to minimize the availability of Social
Security numbers,” said LexisNexis spokeswoman Mary Dale Walters. Marco
Piovesan, vice president of business services at ChoicePoint, said that his
company has discussed the issue with private investigators, but has decided
not to sell them Social Security numbers. ‘’We restrict that information to
a large number of business types, including the PI group,” Piovesan said.
Detectives like Buckley say that truncated Social Security numbers aren’t
enough to provide positive identification of missing persons, especially
when they’re trying to locate someone with a common name, like Bob Jones or
John Smith.
But not all detectives share Buckley’s concern.
Kroll Associates, one of the world’s largest investigation
firms, uses Social Security numbers to identify their investigative targets.
But Kroll’s executive managing director, Dan Karson, said that his
investigators should be able to find Social Security numbers even if the big
database firms clam up.
‘’For most of the population, I don’t think you’d need these databases to
get SS numbers,” Karson said, noting that the numbers for millions of
Americans can be found by scrutinizing freely accessible public records.
Longtime Boston private eye Gil Lewis prefers to find people using
courthouse records, data on previous employers, and places of residence.
Lewis said that he never uses Social Security numbers in his work. ‘’If a
guy doesn’t want to be found, he’s not going to use his Social Security
number,” Lewis said.
Indeed, he said that when he tried Social Security number searches, he has
found the same number being used by four or five people, making it useless
as an identifier. ‘’I don’t care if they do away with every SS number in the
world,” Lewis said.
No matter how much a person might try to hide, he’ll still find work, make
friends and spend money. In the process, said Lewis, he’ll leave a trail
that a skilled investigator can track. ‘’You really can’t hide for very
long,” Lewis said. ‘’If you’ve got the time and money to pursue somebody,
you can find anybody.”
But Hulme said that easy access to Social Security numbers, drivers license
numbers and other personal data are vital for private investigators working
to establish the innocence of a defendant in a criminal case. He said that
police will continue to have full access to the data, enabling them to
quickly track down witnesses for the prosecution.
‘’If it all gets tied up,” said Hulme, ‘’only police organizations will have
access to this information, and the defense will not.” He said that this
could put defense attorneys and their clients at a serious disadvantage.
That means that detectives may have to get used to finding people the
old-fashioned way, a prospect that doesn’t bother Lewis. ‘’You just have to
be imaginative.” he said. ‘’If you find a closed door, you find another
door.”
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.