Tell us your experiences with data brokers

We often don’t get to choose the companies that control our most personal and sensitive information. Data brokers is a term to describe those companies that collect, aggregate, sell, resell, license, or share our personal information with others.

Data brokers play a decisive role in our financial lives, impacting whether we’re able to buy a home or find a job. The CFPB wants to hear from the public about the business practices of data brokers and how those practices have directly affected people’s lives. We have released a Request for Information to understand the full scope and breadth of the industry and whether all data brokers are playing by the same rules.

Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act in response to concerns about how companies were creating and selling detailed dossiers of consumers’ personal information. Our inquiry seeks information about data broker business practices employed in the market today to inform the CFPB’s efforts to administer the law, including planned rulemaking under the FCRA.

Sharing your experiences with data brokers

We want stakeholders from across the marketplace to share data, analysis, research, and other information about data brokers. We also want to hear from people who have interacted with data brokers or been affected by their practices.

We’re interested in hearing about:

• The types of data that data brokers collect and sell, along with details about their collection methods
• The types of consumer harms and risks caused by data broker business practices, as well as any benefits
• Whether people can avoid having their data collected
• Whether and how data brokers protect and safeguard personal data
• Individual experiences with attempting to remove, correct, or regain control of personal data

We welcome all submissions until the comment period ends on June 13, 2023. Your submissions will help us shed light on an industry that largely operates out of public view as well as inform our future work to ensure that data brokers comply with the law.

We encourage you to submit your comments early. All submissions must include the document title and docket number. In general, all comments received, including attachments and other supporting material, will be posted without change to Regulations.gov . Proprietary information or sensitive personal information – such as account and Social Security numbers or names of individuals – should not be included.

Share your data broker information and experiences by submitting a public comment in the Federal Register .