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A data-gathering company that was embroiled in the Florida 2000 election fiasco is being paid millions of dollars by the Bush administration to collect detailed personal information on the populations of foreign countries, enraging several governments who say the records may have been illegally obtained.


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The controversy is not the first to engulf ChoicePoint. The company's subsidiary, Database Technologies, was responsible for bungling an overhaul of Florida's voter registration records, with the result that thousands of people, disproportionately black, were disenfranchised in the 2000 election. Had they been able to vote, they might have swung the state, and thus the presidency, for Al Gore, who lost in Florida by a few hundred votes.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,949709,00.html

Every citizen that the US has information on may be able to sue the US government if its found the company gained information illegally. Also why need all this information?
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Countries are spying on and gathering information about other countries and their residents all the time. As far as I am aware this would almost always be considered illegal.
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yes but buying all this data blood, records, passport details i dont think has been done on such a massive scale before and shouldnt be done by a national government, illegaly buying personal data of people from other countries. How can a country do that. So if you admit its illegal you admit the US is wrong to do so?
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Well depends who's law the US should have to respect. It certainly won't be illegal by US law, but could well be by the law of the countries in which these people live.

The local people who are selling this information are almost certainly breaking their law but those buying it are probably not as they would be under US jurisdiction.

Btw: Don’t try and make this out as another evil-America rant. In the interests of national security almost every country in the world does this kind of thing, even good little New Zealand. Shocked
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you never said anything bad about the USA trapper. we know its not an evil-america rant. Wink
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isnt it illegal to recieve stolen goods? Isnt that the law in the US. I know I rant on about evil america, I just want to make people question things abit more. If itsproven these were stolen from countries etc and the US buys them whether knowingly or not that they were stolen they still recieved stolen goods. Also funny that its the same company that botched up the election in florida by excluding thousands of minority voters.
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Yes, as far as I know it is indeed illegal for a US citizen to receive stolen goods off another US citizen as it should be, but obviously this has nothing to do with, and doesn't apply to, the acquisition of intelligence information by the US government from its various spies in other countries. Even if those spies are breaking the local law by providing it.

In summary, do you really think the likes of Saddam and his crew will be able to sue the US govt as they hold illegally (by Iraqi law) acquired information on them?? Come on, start thinking a bit.
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trapper what the hell has saddam got to do with anything? The article i posted has nothing to do with the middle east let alone saddam hussein. Also the article doesnt say anything about spying, it was a company that brought entire databses of countries residents blood types passport numbers, occupations etc and mainly from south america. The company is the same company that botched the florida election. The company recieved 10 million form Bush to get this information. Most of the information is possibly been stolen or acquired through dubious means, yet to be proven thought, It also goes onto suggest if proven the information was stolen people who information was collected could leaglly sue the US government

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Legal experts in the US and Mexico said ChoicePoint could be liable for prosecution if those who supplied it with the personal information could be proven to have broken local laws. That raises the possibility that any person whose data was accessible to American officials could take legal action against the US government.

"Anybody who felt they were affected by this could take the US government to court," said Julio Tellez, an expert in Mexican information legislation at the Tec de Monterrey University. "We could all do it ... We are not prepared to sell our intimacies for a fistful of dollars."

How the US is using the information remains mysterious, although its focus on Latin America suggests obvious applications in targeting illegal immigrants. Whatever the reasons, its commitment to ChoicePoint is long-term: last year's $11m payment was part of a contract worth $67m that runs until 2005.

ChoicePoint denied breaking any laws. "All information collected by ChoicePoint on foreign citizens is obtained legally from public agencies or private vendors," it said. It also denied purchasing "election registry information" from Mexico.
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I know it has nothing to do with Saddam, but my point is that if these foreign citizens could sue the US government (or a company working for it) for collecting info about them, then surely Saddam (who is obviously a foreign citizen) could too!

and btw from your own quote
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ChoicePoint denied breaking any laws. "All information collected by ChoicePoint on foreign citizens is obtained legally from public agencies or private vendors," it said. It also denied purchasing "election registry information" from Mexico.
So this whole discussion is probably just us pissing into the wind anyway. Rolling Eyes
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Legal experts in the US and Mexico said ChoicePoint could be liable for prosecution if those who supplied it with the personal information could be proven to have broken local laws. That raises the possibility that any person whose data was accessible to American officials could take legal action against the US government


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Nicaraguan police have raided two offices suspected of providing the information. The revelations threaten to shatter public trust in electoral institutions, especially in Mexico, where the government has begun an investigation.



As I said if its proven they were obtained illegally, as per above the company says it wasnt brought illegally, but where they brought the information from are under ivestigation so only time will tell. By all accounts it doesnt look to good for the company of the US Im sure police in nicaragua wouldnt goto such lengths if it was all legal. The main fact is this company purchased information that was not thiers to purchase. People within nicaragua and mexico apparently sold this information to this company which was not thiers to sell. The company will be liable if this proven as it should not have sought this information apart from legal means. If it was all legal then should be easy to prove but it doesnt seem to be. Maybe all pissing in the wind.

As for saddam hussein I dont think he has a right to sue the US over information collected about him, I never said that and the article never said that. I ddnt even imply it, im sure you would agree id be the first to say he could.