[14964] in APO-L
Statement from Lexis-Nexus
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (edk@LASPAU.MHS.HARVARD.EDU)
Tue Sep 17 14:42:20 1996
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1996 14:34:42 -0500
Reply-To: edk@LASPAU.MHS.HARVARD.EDU
From: edk@LASPAU.MHS.HARVARD.EDU
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
*Sigh* I hate my email system. I'm going to try this again and see if I
can't get rid of the problems.
I found the following on the Lexis-Nexus web site (http://www.lexis.com/):
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[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@prod.lexis-nexis.com.
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Copyright - 1996 LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights
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Y.I.S.
Ellen c.c. Kranzer
APO-L Administrator
ekranzer@harvard.edu or ccrazy@world.std.com
U.S. Mail: Ellen Kranzer, 18 Riverdale Street, Allston, MA 02134
Phone: (w)617 495-0573, (h)617 254-0057
