Wyden Trying To Stop The Selling Of Personal Info To Data Brokers

WASHINGTON, DC —Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, on Wednesday urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to prevent credit agencies from selling Americans' private, personal data unrelated to their credit or finances via data brokers.

In a letter to Rohit Chopra, director of the CFPB, which was posted online, Wyden pointed out that there is strict federal regulation governing how credit reporting agencies like Equifax, Experian and Transunion process and sell credit data that reveals payment history and credit lines.

"However, these companies also sell a subset of the same data —including names, addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers —in bulk, to data brokers, who then sell it to private investigators and the government," Wyden said. "The sale of this so-called 'credit-header' data is regulated by the CFPB, pursuant to the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act."

Wyden added: "These data brokers are serving as shady middlemen to sell this personal information without any legal protections. CFPB must rein in the sale of Americans' data by credit agencies for non-credit related purposes."

In the letter, Wyden said he successfully pressured utility companies to end the sale of their customers' information to data brokers. However, credit bureaus are continuing to sell similar data they obtain from banks.

Wyden is calling on the CFPB to investigate this practice, and issue updated regulations that make it illegal.

The letter is part of Wyden's ongoing fight to protect Americans' digital privacy and personal data from big corporations, law enforcement and other agencies, Wyden's office said.

The senator noted that earlier this year, he introduced the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, which closed the legal loophole that allows data brokers to sell Americans' personal information to law enforcement and intelligence agencies without any court oversight.

Read Wyden's Wednesday letter to the CFPB here.