The CFPB's idea of using existing US law to regulate data brokers is not new. In February 2023, a group of consumer-focused nonprofits urged Chopra to enforce the powers given to regulators by the FCRA to prevent data brokers from engaging in these potentially harmful practices.
“Protecting the personal information of everyone in America is extremely important in our current political climate,” says Laura Rivera, an attorney at Just Futures Law, a nonprofit that supports grassroots activists. “The risks are too great to continue to let the data broker industry sell our information at will, where the status quo has left it ripe for misuse and targeting by harmful actors.”
In a briefing with WIRED on Monday, CFPB officials declined to comment on whether they believe the regulatory action will be short-term, as President-elect Donald Trump reorganizes the federal government with the aim of targeting Planned to empower many people of Silicon Valley. “Waste and Fraud.”
Elon Musk, who is running an office named after a meme coin – the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE –attacked directly The CFPB's action last week called for the agency to be “removed.” Musk's comments came after an attack on the agency's work by Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist who claimed A recent episode of Joe Rogan's podcast This agency is “terrorizing” banking startups.
The CFBP was established in 2011 with the aim of protecting consumers from fraud and abuse caused by the 2008 financial crisis.
A CFPB official told WIRED that the agency is also concerned that data is being disseminated in ways that companies purport to protect people's identities but are actually simply “anonymized.” “Can be done, as studies have shown again and again. “As technology advances, we anticipate that it will become even easier to hide allegedly unknown data,” one official said. The proposed rule thus includes a series of guidelines for credit reporting agencies involved in selling data they allege has been de-identified.
Asked whether the proposal would extend to US government agencies, one official says US law sets out “very clear pathways” for the government to purchase personally identifying data for law enforcement and intelligence purposes. Does. In a recent case, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was discovered by journalists Access to Americans' personal data has been bought in an effort to scrutinize immigrants – data acquired by media group Thomson Reuters, which it provided in contracts to clients, were revealed by the company to have cost them more than $100 million. Was. (Thomson Reuters had previously denied The data is intended to track undocumented immigrants and emphasizes that its database does not contain information that would typically require a search warrant to access.)
“We're not disrupting any of those avenues,” says a CFPB official. However, the agency is requesting comment on the potential impacts of such government procurement to ensure access. cool Beans.
Emily Peterson-Kassin, director of corporate power at the nonprofit advocacy group Demand Progress Education Fund, praised the CFPB's proposal and urged the incoming Trump administration to look at it.
“The CFPB is doing some important work that will impact every single American. Peterson-Kassin says anyone you pick up on the street can tell you about the daily scam messages, emails and calls they receive from fraudsters who can easily exchange our contact information for suspicious, irresponsible data. Buy from brokers. “Finally, someone – specifically the CFPB – has taken action to stop this daily plague affecting millions of people by imposing real standards for the sale of our sensitive information.”