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Business Searches: Business Background Checks Provide Can Provide Valuable Insight.

Back in March and more recently in September, Congress has been mulling over the details of data breach bills. Very simply, these bills would require business to notify consumers if their information is "reasonably believed to have been acquired by an unauthorized person."

Though a standard for such bills has yet to be set, many federal and state agencies look to California Senate bill 1386 as the benchmark. Passed in 2002 and often referred to as the original data-breach law, California Senate bill 1386 requires that consumers be notified if personal identification such as Social Security number, driver's license number, account number, credit card or debit card number have been compromised. It is believed that this type of information could be used to steal a person’s identity.

Penalties for companies that fail to comply with data-breach laws have so far resulted in mostly civil penalties and requiring companies to submit to independent security audits for a set period of time.

Most people have read about or are familiar with Choice Point. Making it the largest civil penalty in FTC history, ID verification services vendor Choice Point received $15 million in civil penalties and fines and 20 years of independent security audits as a result of their data breach.

Can you tell if a company has had a data breach?

Currently, the Web site PrivacyRights.org keeps a “Chronology of Data Breaches”. As of today, their Web site puts the total number of records breached at 97,215,589. You can view the whole list here.

While there is no absolute way to determine or ensure that your data will not be compromised when in the hands of a company, there are certain best practices that could lessen the chances of it happening to you.

Now, companies and individual consumers alike can use business background check reports to make a better informed decision about doing business with a particular individual or corporation.

Business background check reports contain corporate and fictitious business name records by business name, owner’s name, address or phone number. Results may include name of business entity, address, start date, filing number, address and phone. All of this information can prove to be extremely valuable when trying to determine just exactly who you are doing business with.

Dec 19, 2006

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