ChoicePoint Settles Data Issue With Agents

By Mark E. Ruquet

NU Online News Service, Jan. 24, 10:27 a.m. EST?Insurance information provider, ChoicePoint, after complaints that they were violating proprietary rights of independent agents, has agreed to stop selling data they accumulated from transactions with agents.

The company said it would halt the sale of client policy expiration date lists gathered from independent agents who contacted the service for inquiries on client credit background.

The Alpharetta, Ga., reporting service agreed to change its practice after several agent groups brought the issue to their attention. The Independent Insurance Agents of America and the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents, both based in Alexandria, Va., along with the Professional Insurance Agents Alliance an eight-state organization of Northeast and Midwest PIA groups contacted the company, ChoicePoint said.

Several insurance companies, who work through the independent agency system, have reportedly made changes in their contracts with the information service to stop the data harvesting practice.

ChoicePoint said this month it ended the practice of developing the lists with information gathered from independent agent's orders.

ChoicePoint said it did not agree that any agent's proprietary rights were violated. However, it would no longer develop the list from orders placed directly by independent agents to the service or through an agent's company office. ChoicePoint also said it would purge its database of such information.

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