'Employees had no role in ChoicePoint breach'

The new officer in charge of privacy, credentialing and compliance at ChoicePoint says employees at the company played no part in the leaking of information on about 145,000 Americans.

While procedures at the data broker needed to be improved, individuals at the companies did not make any mistakes, ChoicePoint's Carol DiBattiste told the Associated Press.

ChoicePoint revealed in February that scam artists had gotten access to personal data on tens of thousands of Americans, resulting in at least 750 cases of identity theft. The scandal has prompted calls for new legislation to protect consumers' privacy rights.

The Alpharetta, Ga.-based company in late June said it had completed changes to its business to prevent such a breach from happening again. One of those was appointing DiBattiste, former deputy administrator of the US Transportation Security Administration.