Snapshots

This page offers snapshots of leading data trading enterprises.

It covers -

• Acxiom
• Seisint
• ChoicePoint
• Experian
• MIB
• infoUSA
• Aristotle

As noted in the preceding pages, the industry features a very large number of businesses (including contractors and subcontractors specialising in data analysis or data collection).

     Seisint

Seisint was founded by US marketer Hank Asher in 1998 (using U$147 million after his exit from DBT Online), initially concentrating on direct mailing and telemarketing information. It subsequently followed the money by expanding into provision of a wider range of of personal information to business, journalists, government and commercial investigators.

Seisint gained attention for its Accurint service, promoted as offering quick access to information about most of the US population, including addresses, occupations, assets, political party and advocacy organisation affiliation, and associates. It also attracted stronger criticism for its MATRIX (Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange) system and for its founder's colourful past.

MATRIX was claimed to integrate commercial data with government files in an innovative manner to assist national security profiling, including notions of a 'potential terrorism quotient'. It was described as giving federal and state giving law enforcement officers "quick access to crime fighting and other data, including sex offender lists, federal terrorists lists, criminal history information, and drivers' license and motor vehicle registration information", domain name registrations, bankruptcies, civil court history, liens, voter registration, business filings, federal firearms and explosives licenses, and professional licenses.

As of 2004 Seisint employed around 300 people, most at its Boca Raton headquarters, and had annual revenue of some US$110 million. It was claimed to hold records on 450 million people.

Seisint was acquired for US$775 million in 2005 by LexisNexis, the legal database arm of publishing giant Reed Elsevier. LexisNexis had some 13,000 employees at that time.

     ChoicePoint

ChoicePoint was spun off from Equifax in 1997, initially concentrating on sale of data to insurers. It has aggressively acquired smaller competitors in the US and UK, including DBT Online (founded by Hank Asher).

As of 2006 it had revenue of around US$1 billion, employing some 5,500 people at 60 locations, and is reported to have over 50,000 government and corporate clients.

ChoicePoint's primary database of personal information contains names, addresses, Social Security numbers, credit reports and other sensitive data. As of 2005 it was claimed to feature 250 terabytes of data on 220 million people. ChoicePoint's Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (CLUE), a database used by insurers to share claim and damage report, features information on real estate and vehicles (including name, contact details, birthdate, policy number, claims made, insurance payouts).

EPIC profiled ChoicePoint here.

     Experian

Experian was spun off from UK retail conglomerate GUS in 2006.

As of early 2007 Experian is reported to have files on over 300 million borrowers across the globe, increased with information on another 160 million people when it paid £600m for 70% of Brazilian competitor Serasa.

Experian made profits of US$462 million in its first year trading as a standalone company, with the US generating some US$2 billion of its total sales of $3.48 billion. Around 40% of its revenue is attributable to credit checking services for major lenders, but like its peers Experian has been aggressively expanding into services for consumer, government and business markets, including identity theft alerts, credit rating advice and price comparison services such as Lowermybills.com and internet metrics specialist Hitwise. In the US it is reported to hold consumer credit files on 215 million individuals, with a similar number of profiles in its marketing databases. Its American national vehicle database covers 500 million vehicles. In the UK Experian holds files on 45 million consumers and records on around four million enterprises.

     MIB

MIB Group Inc (aka the Medical Information Bureau) is a US health data specialist. Its databases reportedly cover 16 million consumers, with information on the "medical conditions that may affect their life or longevity" and thereby cause a consumer to be rejected for life or health insurance.

     InfoUSA

InfoUSA, a dominant US list broker and direct marketer, matches buyers and sellers of data. It also acts as a "conduit", with direct mail, telemarketing and email marketing. Subsidiaries include Donnelley Marketing (acquired from Dun & Bradstreet), Walter Karl, Edith Roman, Catalog Vision, Triplex, Yesmail and OneSource.

It reportedly has records on 210 million US consumers and in 2006 generated over US$430 million from some 4 million direct mail clients such as Reader�s Digest and Cond� Nast. Databases include '210 Million Consumers', '75 Million Homeowners', '15 Million New Movers', '13.4 Million Households with Children', '4 Million New Homeowners' and '8.5 Million Bankruptcies'.

It has been strongly criticised for problematical marketing practice and for failure to effectively screen buyers who were known or suspected of fraudulent activity. In 2007 for example the New York Times questioned promotion such as "These people are gullible. They want to believe that their luck can change" in marketing lists such as 'Suffering Seniors' (4.7 million people with cancer or Alzheimer's disease) and 'Oldies but Goodies' (500,000 gamblers over 55 years old) for 8.5 cents apiece.

     Aristotle

US-based politics data trader Aristotle Inc was founded by John Aristotle Phillips in 1983

Aristotle is claimed to hold detailed information regarding 175 million American voters; it is expanding overseas and as of 2007 for example had a 35 million person database regarding UK voters. It employs about 100 people in Washington, Atlanta, San Francisco, Toronto and London. It is 27% held by Hambrecht & Co. and 13.5% by Epartners (a News Corp investment vehicle).

Phillips claims that "What we do is help a campaign run more and more like an effective business". Data on voters includes address, phone numbers, age, occupation, education, names of adult family members, gun and vehicle ownership, party affiliation and donations to parties or advocacy groups, income, membership of advocacy groups, criminal convictions and links to "influential persons". Some data comes from public databases (eg US lists of registered voters), from petitions and from membership lists/profiles sold by advocacy groups.

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