The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is establishing guidelines to avoid “misuse and abuse” by information brokers that track, gather and generate income from details about individuals, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra revealed today throughout a White House occasion. The bureau will release an overview of propositions and options under factor to consider next month, with strategies to provide proposed rulemaking in 2024.
Chopra stated the guidelines under factor to consider would specify an information broker that offers specific kinds of customer information as a “consumer reporting agency” to much better show present market truths. “The CFPB is considering a proposal that would generally treat a data broker’s sale of data regarding, for example, a consumer’s payment history, income and criminal records as a consumer report, because that type of data is typically used for credit, employment and certain other determinations,” he stated. “This would trigger requirements for ensuring accuracy and handling disputes of inaccurate information, as well as prohibit misuse.”
The CFPB is likewise looking for to deal with confusion around whether so-called “credit header data,” that includes details from credit reports, makes up a customer report, Chopra stated. “This includes key identifiers like name, date of birth and Social Security number that are contained in consumer reports generated by the credit reporting companies. The CFPB expects to propose to clarify the extent to which credit header data constitutes a consumer report, reducing the ability of credit reporting companies to impermissibly disclose sensitive contact information that can be used to identify people who don’t wish to be contacted, such as domestic violence survivors.”
Chopra stated that any upgraded guidelines under the Fair Credit Reporting Act can be implemented by the CFPB and state police throughout sectors of the economy. The information broker rulemaking would match work by other federal government companies, particularly the Federal Trade Commission, he included.
