America’s consumer watchdog drops leash on proposed data broker crackdown
Uncle Sam’s consumer watchdog has scrapped plans to implement Biden-era rules that would’ve treated certain data brokers as credit bureaus, forcing them to follow stricter laws when flogging Americans’ sensitive data.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed the rules in December following a string of high-profile scandals that shed light on the massive amounts of personal data being stored and sold off, in some cases to criminals and scammers.
Related Knowledge Center: Digital privacy and data security
If you’re online, you’re generating a constant stream of information about yourself — sometimes voluntarily, sometimes unwittingly — that is assembled and used to craft your online experience. And generate wealth for data brokers. Meanwhile, designers and managers of the digital infrastructure on which the world depends are engaged in a never-ending effort to thwart attempts, by both criminal enterprises and state actors, to exploit vulnerabilities in those systems.
Signalgate | State surveillance