Stop Data Broker Abuse
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Data brokers have a staggering reach into the most private corners of our lives. Large data brokers possess detailed information on more than two-thirds of U.S. residents, tracking where we go, who we know, and what we do each day. Companies many of us have never heard of, like Acxiom and RELX, amass billions of personal records from thousands of different places and update them in real time. In the words of former Federal Trade Commissioner Edith Ramirez, today’s data brokers “often know as much—or even more—about us than our family and friends.”
But there’s reason for hope. In March 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) launched an inquiry into the business practices of data brokers, with the goal of creating rules to protect consumers from data brokers’ practices. The CFPB is collecting information about how data brokers operate, the harms they cause, and whether they honor requests to access or delete a consumer’s personal information. To ensure the CFPB develops the strongest rules possible, they need to hear from you.
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To:
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
From:
[Your Name]
The Request for Information on Data Brokers is an exciting opportunity to shed light on shadowy data brokers that abuse our data in ways we can’t even fully understand. The status quo is an unacceptable web of companies profiting off of data, sharing and selling it with parties from the police to religious institutions to health insurers without knowledge or consent of the subject. The lack of transparency or controls on the data they collect and sell means I could never fully track down the negative impacts that may be influencing critical determinations in my life like access to a job or home or my insurance rate.
We urge you to use your investigatory, enforcement, and rulemaking powers to hold data brokers responsible for their obligations under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to be more responsible about data use, sharing, and selling for decision-making purposes.