Investigate THIS !

Finally, a media account of the field of investigations AND the topic of privacy that reflects well on all private investigators. The Contra Costa Times profiled yours truly, with a frontpage article titled, Privacy predicaments catch gumshoe's eye (free registration required!). The online version doesn't appear on the front page or even post the fabulous photo! [I can mail or email you a pdf version.]

Thanks to Dan Laidman, the reporter, who obligated me to spend hours with him at cafes, drinking coffee. On the issue of privacy...

"I definitely encourage people to take action to protect their access to information," she said.
A key theme of the blogs is that privacy concerns should not lead to the across-the-board restriction of information. Thompson says there is a distinction between a licensed investigator's work and that of a firm like ChoicePoint, the data-gathering company currently embroiled in scandal because it apparently sold personal information -- including data on some 30,000 Californians -- to criminals posing as legitimate businesses.

Thompson notes that when she tracks someone down at another's request, such as a birth parent or former romantic partner, she gives the client's contact information to the person she finds and not the other way around.

"If people want to make a bridge," she said, "we act as intermediaries."

Yesterday the New York Times ran a piece titled, Investigators Argue for Access to Private Data, that gave some visibility to the investigator's point of view on the current debate on restriction of commercial records.




Blogs that mention this article: The Open Society Paradox