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hubie [soylentnews.org] writes:

White House scraps plan to block data brokers from selling Americans' sensitive data [techcrunch.com]:

A senior Trump administration official has scrapped a plan that would have blocked data brokers from selling Americans' personal and financial information, including Social Security numbers.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said in December 2024 it planned to close a loophole [techcrunch.com] under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the federal law that protects Americans' personal data collected by consumer reporting agencies, such as credit bureaus and renter-screening companies. The rule would have treated data brokers no differently than any other company covered under the federal law and would have required them to comply with the law's privacy rules.

The rule was withdrawn early Tuesday, according to its listing in the Federal Register [federalregister.gov]. The CFPB's acting director, Russell Vought, who also serves as the director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget, wrote that the rule is "not aligned with the Bureau's current interpretation" of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

[...] Privacy advocates have long called for the government to use the Fair Credit Reporting Act to rein in data brokers.

The decision by CFPB to cancel the rule comes days after the Financial Technology Association, an industry lobby group representing non-bank fintech companies, wrote to Vought in his capacity as the White House's budget director. The lobby group asked the administration to withdraw the CFPB's rule, claiming it would be "harmful to financial institutions' efforts to detect and prevent fraud."

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