Hi,

Right-wing activists are using cell phone location data to send anti-choice misinformation to people who visited Planned Parenthood clinics.1

Scammers are using demographic data to target seniors and steal their money through sweepstakes schemes.2

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) bought internet data to track down, arrest, and deport an undocumented man after he “checked in” to a Home Depot on Facebook.3

These are just a few of the shocking ways that our private data is being used after it’s collected and sold by data brokers. Data brokers are the “middlemen of surveillance capitalism” – they track us online and then sell our private data to corporations, governments, and others.4

There are very few laws governing how these data brokers operate. But right now, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is investigating the issue, with the goal of establishing rules to protect us from these dangerous invasions of privacy.5

Sign the petition: My personal info is not for sale – it’s time for the CFPB to rein in data brokers!

Former Federal Trade Commissioner Edith Ramirez said that data brokers often know more about us than our own family and friends.6

This data is used for far more than simply targeting ads for online shopping. Last month, an anti-abortion group in Wisconsin used location information from a data broker to target patients at Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health clinics with ads promoting bogus “abortion reversal” and other anti-choice messaging. In a post-Roe v. Wade America, it’s easy to picture how law enforcement could use similar data to arrest and prosecute people seeking abortion care.1

The Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and the FBI already use data brokers to purchase information on cell locations, home addresses, and more to investigate, arrest, and deport people within the United States. Agencies have done all this without warrants, bypassing prohibitions on companies handing data directly to law enforcement.4

The CFPB is currently requesting public input to finally create new rules to govern these out of control data brokers. But the brokers are spending millions on lobbying to prevent any changes to their lucrative industry. The CFPB’s comment period closes next week – now is the time to take action to rein in data brokers.

Sign the petition: We need to end outrageous abuses of our private information by data brokers!

Thanks for taking action,

Joey and the team at Demand Progress

Sources:

  1. Jezebel, “Wisconsin Activist Group Used 'Geofencing' Around Abortion Clinics to Dissuade Patients,” May 18, 2023.
  2. AP, “Marketing company to pay $150M for enabling fraud schemes,” January 28, 2021.
  3. The Intercept, “How ICE Uses Social Media to Surveil and Arrest Immigrants,” December 22, 2019.
  4. Wired, “Data Brokers Are a Threat to Democracy,” April 13, 2021.
  5. CFPB, “CFPB Launches Inquiry Into the Business Practices of Data Brokers,” March 15, 2023.
  6. FTC, “FTC Recommends Congress Require the Data Broker Industry to be More Transparent and Give Consumers Greater Control Over Their Personal Information,” May 27, 2014.

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