Press Release: Attacks on CFPB Undermine Americans’ Privacy
(WASHINGTON) – President Trump’s new acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, today issued an order indefinitely halting “all rulemaking, communications, litigation, and other activities” at the agency, a move that threatens to severely undermine efforts to protect consumers’ privacy — and furthers a pattern of attacks on critical federal agencies charged with protecting the public.
“The CFPB plays a critical role in protecting against some of the most harmful impacts of the data broker industry,” said Alexandra Reeve Givens, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology. “When Americans’ private data, like Social Security numbers, banking history, and location and health data, gets sold to the highest bidder, consumers are more likely to be targeted with predatory offers for loans and other financial services. They’re also more likely to be doxed or face identity theft. That’s exactly the kind of harm CFPB should be preventing. Delaying or stopping those efforts puts ordinary families in harm’s way, all across the country.”
Reeve Givens pointed out that the President recently fired, potentially unlawfully, Democrat commissioners on the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, leaving each without a quorum and preventing their further work.
“Today’s action is part of a broader effort to knee-cap key federal agencies that challenge unethical, predatory and illegal practices that affect people’s daily lives,” said Reeve Givens. “These attacks on bipartisan independent agencies will have devastating impacts for workers and consumers across the country and the political spectrum.”
The CFPB is the primary consumer protection agency for the financial sector. It is currently engaged in the rulemaking process on protections against unethical behavior by data brokers and to protect consumers using online payment systems – moves that were halted by today’s order.
Last year, CFPB imposed open banking standards that allowed sharing of data between banks to improve competition in the financial services sector, while also protecting the privacy of banking consumers. The CFPB also recently made clear that employers using worker surveillance technology, including artificial intelligence, had to follow the Fair Credit Reporting Act (requiring transparency, consent from workers, and an ability to dispute inaccurate information). The agency has further called attention to the extensive data collection inherent in video games, and the related impact on kids and parents.