The top consumer watchdog in the US has a plan
Trade-in with a predator: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is cracking down on predatory data brokers in the wake of the 2017 National Public Data breach
In the wake of high-profile hacks affecting hundreds of millions of Americans, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is proposing a rule limiting data brokers’ ability to sell Americans’ sensitive personal and financial information.
The regulation is targeting private companies, not government operations. During a Monday press call, a CFPB spokesperson said the agency is requesting comment on how to ensure government agencies continue to have “appropriate access” to this information. The proposed rule will be up for comments until March 3rd, 2025. but it is possible that Trump and his allies will defang the agency before then, because they want to limit the powers of the agency.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was passed more than fifty years ago, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is now attempting to make it easier for regulators to police data brokers. Under the proposal, data brokers would be limited in their ability to sell certain sensitive personal information, including financial data and credit scores, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and addresses. The CFPB says that closing the loopholes allowing data brokers to trade in this data with little to no oversight will benefit vulnerable people and the US as a whole.
Foreign countries have gone to great lengths to obtain that data, as federal prosecutors alleged that four members of China’s military carried out the 2017 Equifax breach, similar to the Office of Personnel Management breach a few years earlier. The adversaries don’t need to hack anything to get the most sensitive data in the US. “Data brokers—the outfits that collect and sell detailed information about our personal and financial lives—are making this data available to anyone willing to pay a price,” Chopra said.
The National Public Data breach, in which more than 200 million Social Security numbers were offered for sale on the dark web, was referred to by the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during a Monday call. “These aren’t just isolated incidents: they represent a systemic vulnerability in how our personal data is bought and sold,” Chopra said.
The United States government’s leading consumer protection watchdog announced Tuesday the first steps in a plan to crack down on predatory data broker practices that the agency says help fuel scams, violence, and threats to US national security.
The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing a rule limiting data brokers’ ability to sell Americans’ sensitive personal and financial information. Under the proposal, data brokers would be limited in their ability to sell certain sensitive personal information, including financial data and credit score, phone numbers, Social Security numbers and addresses. This comes after high-profile hacks affecting hundreds of millions.