Released: November 01, 2006

Who will speak for customers?

Source: David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle

Remember ChoicePoint? That’s the data broker - a seller of consumers’ personal info - that agreed to pay $15 million in fines earlier this year after scammers gained access to the company’s files on more than 150,000 people. Since that security breach, which served as a wake-up call for many consumers about the ease with which confidential data can go astray, ChoicePoint has been waging a PR campaign to convince people (and government authorities) that it has turned over a new leaf.

The company’s latest move came the other day with the announcement that it has appointed a full-time “consumer advocate” to ensure that the concerns of ordinary people are heard by ChoicePoint’s execs.

My reaction: Right idea, wrong execution. I’ve long believed that the gaping hole in corporate America’s management hierarchy is a high-level consumer advocate who can represent the customer’s interests during a company’s decision-making process.

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