This seems like one of those situations where you have to decide between the risk you know and the risk you don&39;t. Although, you don&39;t really have a choice in this case.

A press release from ChoicePoint caught my eye this afternoon. The headline: ChoicePoint Sells Bulk Bankruptcy, Liens and Records Business. The lead:

"ChoicePoint announced today that it has sold part of its public records operations, specifically the businesses that collect bankruptcy, lien and judgment (BLJ) records and provide them on a wholesale, bulk basis to commercial enterprises around the country.  The terms of the sale and the buyer were not disclosed..."

You might remember ChoicePoint as the background check company that accidentally sold 145,000 sensitive consumer records to an identity thief in 2004. The company was fined $15 million for the event and their case led to new data breach notification laws. And ChoicePoint has tried over the past year to become a security leader in their industry.

But now, consumer public bankruptcy, lien and judgment records are going to be handled by a different company?  An unnamed company that we don&39;t have any information about? That will be selling consumer data in bulk to big companies?

I can&39;t help but feel nervous about this announcement. And I don&39;t even have any of those public records in my name! What do you think?