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Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bucky Katt who wrote (3594)	2/18/1999 1:48:00 PM
From: HandsOn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57584

Anybody see the CNBC piece just now on whiz kid daniel miller, now shorts will be all over His picks as soon as they pop.

To: Bucky Katt who wrote (3594)	2/18/1999 1:57:00 PM
From: NoWhereMan	Respond to of 57584

APII In Orlando? If so, I could pay them a visit if it would help any. Also, Aren't they due for earnings? robb

To: Bucky Katt who wrote (3594)	2/18/1999 6:49:00 PM
From: Rande Is	Respond to of 57584

This news will get your hair to stand on end. . . {said sarcastically] . . .Looks like the U.S. Secret Service feels so strongly about people writing bad checks to one another that they decided to fund a National Data Base of driver's license photos. . .yeah. . right. . . License Photo Co. Got Federal Aid W A S H I N G T O N (AP) STATE OFFICIALS and civil liberties groups are fearful that privacy violations could arise from a planned national databank of driver's license photos. Those fears were heightened Thursday when they learned that the Secret Service helped finance the undertaking by a private company. The company developing the databank says there's nothing to worry about - the photos would only be used to combat check fraud and other crimes involving the misuse of personal identification. And the Secret Service wouldn't have access to the photos or the system, officials said. But lawmakers who arranged the Secret Service funds for Image Data LLC of Nashua, N.H., suggested that the databank could potentially be used to fight terrorism and immigration abuses. That has set off alarms among privacy advocates and state officials who worry that what was billed as a system to protect consumers from fraud could be used as a tool to track the activities of private citizens. "This is a high-tech wolf in sheep's clothing," said Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. "There's a lot more going on here than check verification." The three states that agreed to sell their driver's license photos to Imaga Data - South Carolina, Florida and Colorado - were already trying to get out of agreements after consumers voiced concerns about how the photos would be used. The disclosure Thursday by The Washington Post that the company received $1.46 million from the Secret Service for the project gave new ammunition to state officials, who said they weren't informed of the federal funding. "We were never told of their conspiracy with the federal government and their efforts to use this information to track the activities of South Carolina citizens," said Jim Klauber, a member of the state legislature. South Carolina's attorney general has called for an investigation. In Washington, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups called for hearings and tighter drivers' privacy laws. Image Data denied that it misled states about its TrueID system, which - when fully operational - would send photo images from its databank to merchants so they can check the identification of customers paying with checks. The system is being tested at 10 stores in South Carolina. The Secret Service funding simply never came up, said Lorna Christie, Image Data spokeswoman. The company was barred from discussing the Secret Service's involvement, anyway, she added. The money was used to fund the test phase of the project. The Secret Service, which oversees the government's efforts to combat credit card and check fraud, benefits from the system because it's "a tool for detecting fraud," Christie said. A spokesman for the service did not return phone calls. Contracts and state laws specify that the company can only use driver's license information for fraud prevention, Christie said. "To suggest that Image Data intends to break its contracts or obligation under law is irresponsible and blatantly wrong," the company said in a statement. Several lawmakers pushing for federal funds for the project cited other possible uses. TrueID "has widespread potential to reduce crime in the credit and checking fields, in airports to reduce the chances of terrorism, and in immigration and naturalization to verity proper identity," according to two 1997 letters to Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., chairman of an appropriations committee panel that oversees the Secret Service. The lawmakers asked for $4.6 million. The company eventually received $1.46 million in the fiscal 1998 budget. "The Secret Service can provide technical assistance and assess the effectiveness of this new technology," said a September 1997 letter signed by eight lawmakers. Christie said the lawmaker used "a very broad range of the types of uses" for TrueID and said the company is focused on retail and banking applications. Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., supported the project because it could help combat identity-based crimes that cost government, businesses and citizens over $25 billion annually, said his spokesman Maury Lane. But Hollings believes people should be able to opt out of the database, he added.