And sharing a database isn't theft.
Today, Interpol has over 35,000 stolen items on its art database – and art thefts continue apace.
As the economic recovery limps forward, consumer lawyers say, the consequences of the retail theft databases' can be particularly devastating.
Last summer, the F.T.C. settled charges with HireRight, which provides a retail-theft database along with other types of screenings.
Since the recession, lawsuits have proliferated against the companies that operate retail theft databases, like LexisNexis, which owned Esteem until this year, HireRight and GIS, according to a review of court records.
Meanwhile, Interpol confirmed that two stolen passports -- one Italian, one Austrian -- used by passengers on the plane had been entered into the agency's database following their thefts in Thailand in 2012 and 2013.
SC Integrity, a security firm in Bothell, Wash., uses G.P.S. technology and a database of shipping container thefts to safeguard trucking fleets.
It's too early to tell if the CTIA's national database will curb smartphone thefts.
Among other things, the group is concerned that facial recognition could undermine the right to anonymity, lead to mistaken identities if it doesn't work properly or result in identity theft if databases containing the images are hacked.
On Monday, thousands of people were outed as members of a dating site catering to unfaithful spouses after the theft of a database containing personal details of millions of user accounts.
