ChoicePoint Inc., which is under investigation by federal authorities in last year's theft of personal data affecting tens of thousands of consumers in 50 states, said Tuesday that it has hired a chief privacy officer who will report directly to the company's board.

Carol A. DiBattiste, currently deputy administrator of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, will lead an independent office in Washington, D.C., to oversee improvements in customer credentialing processes, the expansion of a site visit-based verification program, and implementation of procedures to expedite the reporting of incidents, officials with the Alpharetta, Ga., company said. DiBattiste will also help establish company policies for compliance with local, state, and federal privacy laws and regulations.

DiBattiste will hold the title of chief credentialing, compliance and privacy officer, and will report to the privacy committee of the company's board.

"Recent events where criminals were able to become customers have led us to take this strong action in order to regain the trust of consumers that their information is being used only for their benefit, or the benefit of society at large," John Hamre, chairman of the privacy committee, said in a statement. "To regain that trust, we need a strong voice outside the day-to-day business that is responsible for customer credentialing, compliance, and privacy."

The company came under fire by consumer advocates after it reported earlier this year that it had handed over consumers' names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and credit reports to fraud artists in Los Angeles County. ChoicePoint in late February sent 145,000 notifications to residents in 50 states whose personal information may have been sold to the con artists last fall.

ChoicePoint provides personal and financial data on consumers mostly to businesses, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, law enforcement, insurance companies, and financial institutions. The company has about 19 billion public records in its databases.

Last week, the company disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission was conducting an "informal inquiry" into the circumstances surrounding the identity theft. In addition, the federal agency was looking at recent trading of ChoicePoint stock by chief executive Derek Smith and Chief Operating Officer and President Doug Curling.

ChoicePoint also said the Federal Trade Commission was conducting a separate investigation into the company's compliance with federal laws governing consumer information security and related issues.