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Politico: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ended its plans last week to block data brokers from selling consumers’ personal data — including financial information and Social Security numbers — to third parties. Experts warn that the move is the latest in a long line of decisions from the Trump administration to erode data privacy protections for Americans. Under the Biden administration’s purview in early December, the bureau proposed a rule to close a loophole under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the federal law that protects Americans’ personal data collected by consumer reporting agencies. The rule would have required data brokers to get explicit permission from consumers before collecting and selling their data. The CFPB, under Director Russ Vought, revoked the proposal via a formal notice published Thursday in the Federal Register, declaring it no longer “necessary or appropriate.” Justin Sherman, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative and scholar in residence at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told your host that the decision to disregard the rule “seems to fly against the important, ongoing discussion about protecting data from exploitation and foreign adversaries like China.” — The data on the line: The data broker industry brings in billions of dollars each year compiling personal information on nearly everyone in the U.S. — including Social Security numbers, court testimonies, addresses and location history — and sells them to companies, law enforcement bodies and intelligence agencies. “Data brokers trade deeply personal, sensitive information about us,” Caroline Kraczon, a law fellow focusing on consumer privacy at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told your host. She added that employment information and biometric data are often sold to third parties like advertisers, financial institutions, law enforcement and intelligence agencies — or anyone willing to pay. The potential harm goes far beyond cyberspace — research has long shown that the data compiled by brokers can pose a risk to personal safety. The Electronic Privacy Information Center cautions that the information profiles data brokers put together can be weaponized by abusers to track down survivors of domestic violence. — Privacy priority? The Trump administration has faced sharp backlash from lawmakers and the private sector over its handling of sensitive information. Experts warn that backtracking on the proposal hands a free pass to data broker firms — which have been easy targets for cybercriminals — to sell sensitive information on Americans to the highest bidder. The Department of Government Efficiency has been wrapped up in a sea of litigation over its access to sensitive information across federal agencies. The concern has made its way to Capitol Hill, where lawmakers recently raised the alarm over reports of DOGE accessing personal information from government entities to make a “master database” to track undocumented immigrants. Last week, the National Labor Relations Board’s inspector general launched an investigation into a whistleblower’s recent account of DOGE taking potentially sensitive data from the board. Kraczon said that the Trump administration has signaled “their intention to ignore how data brokers harm Americans and to give a free pass to companies to invade our privacy and put us in harm’s way.” The CFPB did not respond to a request for comment on the decision to revoke the rule.