US Watchdog To Announce Plans To Regulate ‘Surveillance Industry’

The top U.S. agency for consumer financial protection will announce plans at the White House on Tuesday to regulate companies that track and sell people’s personal data, part of the Biden administration’s widening scrutiny of that industry’s privacy practices, officials said. From a report: Data brokers’ conduct can be “particularly worrisome” because the sensitive data driving the use of artificial intelligence can be collected from military personnel, people experiencing dementia, and others, according to Rohit Chopra, director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “The CFPB will be taking steps to ensure that modern-day data brokers in the surveillance industry know that they cannot engage in illegal collection and sharing of our data,” he said in a statement. President Joe Biden last year called on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to help protect the data privacy of women seeking reproductive healthcare who may face law enforcement action in some states. The FTC has also sued an Idaho company for selling mobile phone geolocation data, saying it could be traced to places like abortion clinics, churches and addiction treatment centers.