From: bryce@digicash.com
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 19:28:45 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: other Lexis-Nexis databases
Message-ID: <199609200804.KAA25534@digicash.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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A brief search of www.lexis-nexis.com reveals a few interesting
details:


1.  You can look up people in P-TRAK by SSN.

2.  There are many other databases of personal information,
including:

a.  "REZIDE", "searchable by congressional district, area code 
plus exchange, county, state, metropolitan statistical area 
(MSA) and dominant market area (DMA)" and "providing a detailed
demographic portrait [...] including age, income, race, 
ethnicity, household composition, employment", a "White/Blue
collar index" and a "family life-cycle code".

b.  "DCEASE", giving information including SSN about dead
people.

c.  An assets database identifying real-estate or FAA-registered
aircraft owned by people.

d.  Something called "P-FIND" which is advertised as "having 
greater detail [than P-TRAK] with regard to the individual's 
household (value of home, number of dependents)".  This one
appears in a newsletter from 1994, so the service may be
discontinued (although of course the data still exists...).



It would be a fun experiment and a good cypherpunk publicity
stunt to test Lexis-Nexis out.  Pick a demo victim, 
e.g. a journalist who is honest, smart and concerned about such
issues, but not one who is too famous or rich.  Use Lexis-Nexis
(and possibly other resources) to learn all that you can about 
him/her.  If he/she lives in a sparsely-populated area a narrow
enough REZIDE search might give income, number of persons in 
household, marital status, age, schooling, ethnicity, vehicles 
owned, and employment, and that would be with a single search.


Compile everything you know and send it to the victim,
explaining how you got the information.


Regards,

Bryce




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