Cross a database with 19 billion public records, an industry with little regulation and some wily criminals and what do you get? A massive theft of personal information and widespread identity fraud.

ChoicePoint Inc. started life as a spinoff of the omnipresent, credit-reporting agency Equifax Inc. It now maintains a mountainous database of information that it puts to work for its corporate clients, which include most agencies in the federal government. ChoicePoint conducts background, employment and credit checks for its clients. It collects information ranging from vehicle registrations and deed records to Social Security numbers.

Criminals used stolen identities to start fake companies, which then subscribed to ChoicePoint’s services and pilfered the personal information of between 145,000 and 500,000 people from every state in the country. California, which had the most residents hit by the scam, says the higher number is accurate. ChoicePoint says the lower number is correct and that only 257 people in Maine were affected.

ChoicePoint is doing a lot of things to try to make the situation better. It will pay for all the people affected to have a credit-monitoring service watch for trouble for one year. It has hired a former Secret Service agent to strengthen its verification procedures, and it will rescreen more than 17,000 clients to make sure they are legitimate.

Consumers are at a real disadvantage when it comes to maintaining control over their personal information. Businesses can use services like ChoicePoint and Equifax to compile information about their employees or customers. They can make reports against a person that immediately become part of their personal credit history. The targeted person might never be known unless checking his or her own credit report.

After the damage is done, it takes monumental effort to repair, even if the blemish was added by mistake. The credit reporting industry is completely one-sided.

Kevin Drum, writing for Washington Monthly’s Web site, offered several ideas that would balance consumer interests with those of businesses:

• Consumers should be notified when a business requests a report.

• Reports should not be released without consent.

• Consumers should be notified if nonroutine entries are made on their credit reports.

• Any changes to a credit report should be transparent and involve the consumer.

Good ideas all.

School kids are often warned that this misdeed or that bad behavior will go on their permanent record. A person’s credit report is the real-life permanent record. A good credit report makes ordinary transactions – like buying a house or car – much simpler. A damaged credit history increases costs and can follow a person indefinitely, even if the information on the report is wrong or lacks important context.

Solid reform would make consumers partners in their credit reports. The ChoicePoint thefts demonstrate the need.