For those of you who were concerned about the
warning message sent earlier, here is information from
Lexis-Nexis on their personal information file:
> [LEXIS-NEXIS Communication Center]
> [About LEXIS-NEXIS]
>
> Statement on the P-TRAK file from LEXIS-NEXIS
>
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> LEXIS-NEXIS markets the P-TRAK file to the legal community for use
> by general legal practitioners, litigators and public attorneys, as
> well as law enforcement agencies and police departments. These
> professionals use the P-TRAK file to assist in locating litigants,
> witnesses, shareholders, debtors, heirs and beneficiaries.
>
> It's important to note that LEXIS®-NEXIS® is a business-to-business
> service and is not a consumer online service. The LEXIS-NEXIS
> service is targeted to and used by attorneys, businesses and
> government agencies.
>
> LEXIS-NEXIS is aware of the sensitivities regarding the potential
> misuse of information. While business competitors of LEXIS-NEXIS
> have for some time made Social Security numbers available to users
> of their services, and continue to do so, LEXIS-NEXIS discontinued
> the display of Social Security numbers in the P-TRAK file as of June
> 11, 1996, eleven days after the product was introduced.
>
> There has been much erroneous information distributed on the
> Internet regarding the data displayed in the P-TRAK file. The
> displayed record may, but not always, include the name of the
> individual, the individual's maiden and assumed names, current as
> well as up to two previous addresses, month and year of birth and
> telephone number. That is the only information displayed in the
> P-TRAK file.
>
> Contrary to some messages that have been posted to some Internet
> discussion and news groups, the P-TRAK file does not contain any
> credit histories, bank account information or other personal
> financial data, or medical histories.
>
> The information displayed in the P-TRAK file is an aggregation
> readily available from public information sources such as telephone
> directories (in print and CD-ROM format) and public records
> maintained by government agencies.
>
> Through its actions, LEXIS-NEXIS is balancing the privacy concerns
> of the public with the legitimate needs of legal, business and
> government professionals for access to accurate sources of publicly
> available information. By discontinuing the display of Social
> Security numbers in P-TRAK and only providing information that is
> already available to the public from other sources, LEXIS-NEXIS
> believes it has responsibly met the expressed concerns of the
> public.
>
> Please direct any comments to pr who-is-at prod.lexis-nexis.com.
>
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