3. What are the alternatives? Do you know where your information is being stored? We're not talking about just any information but personal information, like your name, address, phone number, date of birth, social security number, credit card numbers and what you purchase with those credit cards, how much you paid for your car and how much you still owe on it, what magazines you read, whether or not you own a DVD player, and what you like to do for recreation. The list goes on and on. Unbeknownst to most people, a company in Little Rock, Arkansas, called Acxiom is collecting and storing such personal information. Acxiom (the "c" is silent) is one of the world's largest processors of consumer data. The company collects and analyzes more than 1 billion records a day. Acxiom gets this information from a variety of sources, including nine of the 10 largest credit-card issuers, nearly all of the major retail banks, insurance companies, and automakers. If you buy anything on credit or take out a loan of any kind, there is probably a digital file with your name on it in Acxiom's database. Providing data collection and analysis services to its clients allows Acxiom to generate $1.3 billion in annual sales. Those sales produced $64.1 million in profits in the most recent fiscal year and earnings are expected to continue growing for the next several years.