Technology
Cingular sues alleged online information seller
Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Justin Rubner
Data brokers that sell personal telephone records are rapidly becoming a favorite target of the nation's largest cell phone company.
Cingular Wireless LLC, in at least the third lawsuit in as many months, is suing Utah-based Get a Grip Consulting Inc. and several individuals for selling Cingular customer information -- such as private phone records -- on the Internet. The suit, filed March 2 in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, follows a legal win for Cingular on Jan. 25 that temporarily banned an allegedly similar company, eFindOutTheTruth.com Inc., from selling Cingular's customer records. Other cell phone companies, including Verizon Wireless, also have won restraining orders.
In the most recent lawsuit, Cingular claims operators of one of Get a Grip's Web sites, www.completeskiptrace.com, have been dishonestly obtaining customer information and selling it on the Internet. (A visit to the Web site on March 10, however, would not allow visitors to get cell phone information.)
Cingular officials say the company recently has changed its security procedures, in particular mandating that customer records be mailed only to the address listed on customers' bills.
In the lawsuit, Cingular posts a printout of www.completeskiptrace.com's "cell phone investigations" prices. The service ranges from $80 to $110.
In addition to the myriad of lawsuits facing such data brokers, they also are facing a litany of state and federal bills banning the practice. In Georgia, for example, Rep. Cecily Hill of St. Marys on Feb. 8 introduced a bill that would make the practice a felony.
Forging ahead
Atlanta-based AppForge Inc., a provider of services for PDAs, has raised about $7 million in venture capital, a highly placed source says.
The transaction follows a March 3 Securities and Exchange Commission filing that stated its intent to raise money.
In an October VentureWire story, CEO Gary Warren said he was looking for $8 million, which would be the company's fourth round, raising its lifetime funding to $22 million. Warren told VentureWire he brought on Chief Financial Officer Graham Wood to raise more venture capital. The money, he said, would be used to expand into Europe and Asia.
Warren, however, declined to comment March 13 on the deal.
Investors in AppForge's previous rounds include Draper Atlantic, Grosvenor Funds and Council Ventures. Tennessee-based Council Ventures has strong Atlanta ties, having invested in money transfer provider iKobo Inc., security provider Lancope Inc. and eBay Inc. partner Marketworks Inc.
The company, founded in 1999, employs 50 people and also has an office in Newport News, Va.
New headquarters
InterFix Ventures LLC, a provider of hardware, software and services for the medical transcription industry, has moved its headquarters from Grand Rapids, Mich., to Atlanta.
CEO Scott Faulkner, the former president of the Medical Transcription Industry Association, said the company plans to hire 40 people within the next 18 to 24 months. He chose Atlanta because of the city's high-tech work force as well as its more diverse economy.
InterFix is targeting a small niche: large offshore medical transcription organizations. The company helps such foreign operations transmit health care information securely by offering encryption, compression and integration.
A big driver for the industry, Faulkner said, is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a set of rules governing patient privacy. The medical transcription business, estimated at $13 million, is expected to be worth $20 million by 2011.
"It's a very useful piece of legislation, at least for us," he said jokingly.
The company is a joint venture between Trinidad and Tobago-based e-TecK and Michigan-based InterFix LLC.
Anti-spam patent
Internet Security Systems Inc. (ISS) has applied for a patent for an invention the company claims will make detecting spam more accurate.
According to the patent filing, filed in February, ISS (Nasdaq: ISSX) invented a spam detection system that ranks senders' e-mail addresses and more accurately predicts what is spam and what is not. Often, spam filters will label legitimate e-mails as spam simply because the customer has never received an e-mail from the sender.
ISS offers anti-spam technology in both its software and security appliances through its Proventia product line.
It is said that one out of every two e-mails sent in the United States is spam. During the week of March 6, according to www.spamcop.net, 5.3 million spams were sent to U.S. in-boxes, or 8.8 every second.
Representing ISS in the application is King & Spalding LLP.
If you have news for Technology, contact Justin Rubner at (404) 249-1078; fax, (404) 249-1058; or at jrubner@bizjournals.com.
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