United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs is seeking opinions on the collection, use and protection of sensitive data by financial regulators and private companies.
Chairman of the group Mike Crapo and ranking member Sherrod Brown are currently seeking feedback from interested stakeholders.
Financial and personal data is becoming a keen area of interest around the world, with the US now taking increased observance of how data is used, collected, stored and protected.
Moving forward, the protection of data will be a major focus of the Banking Committee.
Crapo said, “Given the exponential growth and use of data, and corresponding data breaches, it is worth examining how the Fair Credit Reporting Act should work in a digital economy, and whether certain data brokers and other firms serve a function similar to the original consumer reporting agencies.
“I am particularly interested in what data is contained in modern consumer reports, how the information is gathered, who compiles it, how it is protected, how consumers can access it and correct it, and how privacy is respected.”
There are five questions being posed, exploring ideas such as what can be done to enhance control of financial data for consumers or making it clear what information is being collected about them and for what means.
Other topics being explored are how to give consumers powers over how their data is used, what can be done to ensure information in a credit file is accurate, and the best ways to give consumers controls over information.
Responses to the questions will be accepted up until 15 March 2019.
Brown said, “In the year and a half since the Equifax breach, the country has learned that financial and technology companies are collecting huge stockpiles of sensitive personal data but fail over and over to protect Americans’ privacy. Outdated privacy laws don’t address the complex surveillance schemes these businesses profit from today.
“Congress should make it easy for consumers to find out who is collecting personal information about them, and give consumers power over how that data is used, stored and distributed.”
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