Senate Banking Committee Sends Treasury Secretary Requests Review on Consumer Data Uses
On June 7, 2022, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (“Committee”), Senator Sherrod Brown sent Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen a letter[1] requesting the Financial Stability Oversight Council (“Council”) to conduct a review on the collection and sale of personal consumer data by financial institutions to assess the systematic threats posed to the stability and security of the U.S. financial and to “Americans’ security and civil rights.”
Brown specifically expressed concern over children and persons using mobile apps to track their sensitive personal information whose data has reportedly been sold to third parties, creating significant “privacy and security issues” by “allowing bad actors to specifically target at-risk people and further endanger already vulnerable communities.”
This pattern of financially profiting by the sale of this personal information is especially concerning to Brown due to the “raw and sensitive data” that financial institutions have access to, such as “data pertaining to the products and services consumers purchase, the precise location and time of such purchases, and the amount spent.” This information can subject consumers to exploitation by targeted advertisement, price increases, or utilizing “certain people’s spending patterns to target them for blackmail or ransomware.”
Although the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and many other related regulations require that financial institutions disclose their information collection and sharing practices and permit consumers to opt-out of these practices upon request, Brown poses that many consumers may be unaware of these rights and the effects that these practices could have on them.