The Privacy and Security of Private Sector Data Brokers: A Response to Chopra’s Call on the 2018 Equifax Data Breach in China

The proposed action of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau aims to stop data Brokers from enabling scam artists, stalkers and spies to undermine the safety and security of our country.

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 under consideration untilMarch 3rd, 2025, but it is possible that Trump and his allies will take away the power of the agency before then.

In 1970, the first US privacy law was passed, the FCRA, requiring credit reporting agencies to adhere to certain standards for accuracy and privacy in their dealings with people’s financial information. The proposal from the CFPB aims to regulate data brokers in the same way as credit reporting agencies. It would require data broker to obtain explicit authorization from people before sharing their credit information, instead of burying it in legal documents which are hard to read.

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 Americans’ most sensitive data, as was said on the 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.

The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau mentioned the national public data hack earlier this year that resulted in more than 200 million Social Security number being offered for sale on the dark web. “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.