Database Technologies

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DBT Online was founded by Hank Asher as Database Technologies. The group once had a data management contract with the FBI, however, this was terminated following allegations that Asher was associated with Bahamian drug dealers. (1 p.18)

According to Vanity Fair article 050131 "The Net's Master Data-miner"

When maverick cyber-pioneer Hank Asher invented MATRIX, Vanity Fair 050131: "When maverick cyber-pioneer Hank Asher invented MATRIX—a controversial personal-information database—he gave the government a powerful tool for tracking terrorists. So why isn't he a hero?."

"In the spring of 2000, soon after Hank Asher's departure, DBT went into high gear on a $4 million contract with the state of Florida that would mire it in controversy for years to come. Part of the assignment was to scan every relevant database to come up with the names of ex-felons who had registered to vote, then pass the list on to Florida's 67 counties so that the felons could be struck from the rolls, in accordance with Florida law. In the legal finger-pointing that followed, DBT would claim that Florida's Division of Elections, under Secretary of State Katherine Harris, encouraged it to cast as wide a net as possible. Of the more than 50,000 names it came up with as a result, some 20,000 would be registered voters who simply had the misfortune of sharing a name, part of a name, or an inverted name with an actual ex-felon. A disproportionate number of blacks would be barred from the polls in the presidential election, and civil-rights groups would accuse Governor Jeb Bush's administration of using the purge to disenfranchise blacks, who would have voted, in all likelihood, for Al Gore over George W. Bush."

DBT competes with Seisint, Asher's later creation. Seisint was sold to LexisNexis in 2004 for $775 million.