FCRA: Protecting Consumer Privacy from Predator-Induced Scams and Threats in the Age of Cybercriminality
TheCFPB wants a rule to limit the ability of data brokers 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 out for public comment until March 3rd of 2025, but it could be that Trump and his allies will loosen the agency’s power before then.
Under the proposed rule, data brokers that sell information about consumers’ income, credit history, credit score, or debt payments would be considered consumer reporting agencies. The FCRA is a law that limits how these agencies can obtain and use information provided in consumer reports. In other words, they’d be treated like credit bureaus and background check companies, which already have to comply with the FCRA.
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. Still, “our adversaries don’t need to hack anything” to get Americans’ most sensitive data, Chopra said on the press call. “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.
During a Monday press call, CFPB director Rohit Chopra referenced the massive National Public Data breach earlier this year that leaked more than 200 million Social Security numbers that were offered for sale on the dark web. These incidents are indicative of a vulnerability in the way our personal data is bought and sold.
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.
