Featured Article: Class Action Settlements and Beneficiary Tracing

When speaking of class action settlements and beneficiary tracing, it’s important to note the difference between class action lawsuits and traditional lawsuits. A class action lawsuit is inherently different than a traditional lawsuit in that there are many plaintiffs who are suing a business or institution rather than an individual. The plaintiffs are considered a “class” of people. There can be hundreds, thousands, and even millions of people in a class. In this article, we will explore the importance of beneficiary tracing when it comes to class action settlements. Let’s dive in!

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The Do Not Call Registry

How many times have you shouted through your phone at a telemarketer about your number being on the Do Not Call Registry? If you’re anything like me, it’s at least once a week. But what is the Do Not Call Registry and how does it work? In this article we’re going to explore the ins and outs of the DNC and why it’s important.

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Where has all the vital data gone? – Part 2

People Moving

Last time we talked about major life events which can generate data. Things like marriage, divorce, death, and even births. These types of data generally have court records or public filings attached to them.

This time we’ll explore the world of minor life events. These minor events are typically used for marketing purposes but can be used in all sorts of ways outside of that. They can be generated by anything from moving to a new home to getting a new job. So, let’s dive in!

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Where has all the vital data gone?

people in a park

It happens to everyone. Sometime in your late 20’s or mid 30’s all your friends start to disappear. They get married, have children, start families, move away from home, and ultimately join the stream of meaningless updates on your Facebook feed. Seeing them once a week turns into seeing them only during the holidays turns into wondering, “whatever happened to them?”

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What is “The Box” and why are we banning it?

Have you ever filled out a job application which asks the question, “have you ever been convicted of a crime?” with a little checkbox next to it? That’s “the box” that everyone’s talking about.

For many years, HR professionals across the nation were relying on this box to pre-screen applicants without ever conducting a compliant background check.

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How is AI being used in the data industry? Pt 2

In our previous article we talked about predictive AI and how it can be used in the data industry to model human behavior, identify fraud, and predict future events. We also talked about the difficulty with creating predictive models with a lack of ground-truth data.

In this article, we’ll talk about deep learning, image classification, and facial recognition. These are all pretty spicy topics in a very complex industry, so let’s get started.

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How is AI being used in the data industry? Pt. 1

There has been a lot of talk about AI over the last few months – mostly because of generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, Github Copilot, Stable Diffusion, and DALL-E – just to name a few. But how exactly are these technologies being used in the data industry?

We’ll answer all of that and more in this multi-part series entitled, “How is AI being used in the data industry?”

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Bankruptcy Data and Asset Searching

There are several “flavors” of bankruptcy, commonly known by their chapter number in federal code. A brief overview of the more common ones is as follows:

  • Chapter 7 is for both businesses and consumers. It involves liquidation of assets in order to repay creditors. After the assets have been sold, regardless of whether the debt has been fully settled, the debtor receives a discharge which clears them of all existing debts to those creditors.
  • Chapter 11 is most commonly filed by businesses. It allows them to reorganize their debt into a structured payment schedule to the creditors. This type of bankruptcy allows the debtor to continue to operate.
  • Chapter 13 is the cousin of Chapter 11. It’s usually filed by individuals and allows them to repay their debts to the creditors over a course of several years. This is only available to individuals who have less than a certain amount of debt and who have a steady income to support the repayment plan.

So why does all of this matter?
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Bankruptcy Data and PACER

Bankruptcies data, unlike Liens and Judgements, are collected and maintained on a federal level by the United States Bankruptcy Court and is made available through several pubic sources including PACER (https://pacer.uscourts.gov/)

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Lien and Judgment Data

Liens and judgments are legal claims made against an individual or business for failure to pay debts owed to creditors. Private companies often collect this information through various methods such as searching public records, conducting interviews, or purchasing data from other sources. The information is then compiled into databases that can be accessed by potential creditors or other interested parties.

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Texas DPS’s Big Oops!

On February 27th 2023, The Texas Tribune reported that the Texas DPS (Department of Public Safety) accidentally sent more than 3,000 drivers licenses to an organized crime group which was targeting Asian Texas. Read the full article here: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/27/texas-drivers-license-theft-dps/

That’s a lot to unpack! How did this happen, how did they discover it, and what could have been done to prevent it?

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