It's often said that today we live in an information society, that is, a society where the buying and selling of information is important to businesses trying to get your attention -- and your money.

It seems a computer database service that is generally not available to general consumers like you and I has attracted the attention of the Federal Trade Commission and a group of fired-up US Senators.

I'll forgive you if you've never heard of Lexis-Nexis Inc. It's an online computer database and one of the nation's biggest information brokers. It contains a huge library of information, from the news libraries of hundreds of newspapers and magazines, the contents of hundreds of scholarly and technical journals, trade journals, legal information, business filings, tax information.

Only those who can afford it have access to it, all 740,000 of them. You cannot access it on the Internet unless you're willing and able to pay an arm and a leg the right to access the service via telnet. But colleges and universities often pay big bucks to allow students to have access to it, mostly as a research aid.

Within the Lexis-Nexis database, is a service called P-Trak, which gives information on some 300,000 people, including addresses, former addresses, maiden and assumed names, and phone numbers. Also, if you have someone's social security number, you can find their name and address using P-Trak. The information comes from TransUnion, one of the country's big three credit bureaus.

The three senators, Richard H. Bryan, (D-Nevada) Larry Pressler,(R-South Dakota), and Ernest F. Hollings, (D-North Carolina) first looked into the situation following a chain e-mail message that went out to thousands of people claiming that P-Trak would release other personal information, including your mother's maiden name and your birth date, to "anyone with a credit card."

Lexis-Nexis has said that much of the information in that mass e-mail in inaccurate. They have also said that people calling to remove their names from the database are usually not as concerned when they are told exactly what the record contains.

In fact, Lexis-Nexis says, credit fraud usually involves someone who already knows a mother's maiden name and a social security number, which can sometimes be obtained illegally, but not through P-Trak.

But that has not always been true. It was just last June that Lexis-Nexis removed a P-Trak feature that allowed a subscriber to obtain a social security number simply by entering a name and address. The company pulled the plug on the feature after a salvo or complaints from subscribers in the legal profession.

There's no telling how many social security numbers were given out to people who didn't need them for legitimate purposes.

Once Congress comes back into session early next year, you can expect a bill that would restrict how such information is given out.

A recent experience with a credit agency showed me how much information is gathered about us, and stored in electronic form.

After winning a lawsuit against an uninsured driver I had a car accident with, I took a copy of my judgment to a credit bureau in Pocatello and asked for help in locating the guy, who had skipped town.

I received a copy of his latest credit report, which showed me exactly the amount of money he owed to his hospital, his gas company and how recently he had made a payment on his numerous credit cards.

But it also helped me find him, as it revealed the address from where he had made a recent credit card payment. He owed me money, I couldn't find him, so I had a right to the information.

But to me the idea that anyone with access to Lexis-Nexis, including a college student with time on his hands, can get any kind of information on me, without a legitimate reason, is troubling.

You can bet I'll be removing my name from the Lexis-Nexis database. Here's how you can too. Point your Web browser to www.lexis-nexis.com/lncc/p-trak/index.html and fill out the information fields on that page.

To learn more about P-Trak take a look at this Web page. We may be living in an information society, but there's no reason to go overboard.

Send e-mail toArik Hesseldahl.

Send e-mail toThe Idaho State Journal.