The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today announced
a proposed new rule that all data brokers
be regulated under the 1970 Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a
federal law that protects the use and privacy of credit data and
requires information in consumer reports (informally known as
credit reports) to be accurate. The CFPB previously foreshadowed
its move in a September 2023 outline.
As proposed, the rule would significantly broaden the scope of
the FCRA, which currently applies to credit reporting
agencies (CRAs), such as Equifax Inc. and TransUnion, and
entities that report credit data to CRAs.
According to the CFPB, it developed
the proposed rule based on extensive market
monitoring, which the CFPB says shows that data brokers
“routinely sidestep” the FCRA by claiming they
aren't subject to its requirements while selling the kind of
consumer personal and financial data that the law addresses. The
proposal coincides with the FTC's announcements of
