Yet Another Government Agency Is Keeping Tabs On You

RCM ^ | 11/20/2013 | Hester Pierce

[SeekAndFind]

At a Senate Banking Committee hearing last week, Richard Cordray - the director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection - was on the defensive with respect to the bureau's collection of information about Americans' spending habits. His unpersuasive defense of the CFPB's data collection practices was not surprising in light of the agency's flawed design.

First, Mr. Cordray explained that the industry and other regulators also collect credit card information. It is difficult to understand how he reached that conclusion since he did not seem certain about the scope of the bureau's data collection efforts. Mr. Cordray did not directly answer repeated questions from ranking member Sen. Mike Crapo about whether the CFPB is demanding from credit card companies monthly reports with approximately 100 data fields about 900 million different credit card accounts.

Even if Mr. Cordray's but-everyone-is-doing-it assertion is accurate, the fact that other regulators are collecting the same information does not make it acceptable. Nor is industry's collection of information relevant, since consumers consent to credit card providers retaining their usage information; and there are limits on how industry can use the data it collects. History has taught us to worry about massive government data collection efforts-even those undergirded with good intentions-about private citizens.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Whose gonna clean the DC cesspool up and how?

[PATRIOT1876]

It’s a lot of fun to put up scads of fake information in my emails to confuse the vile spys!

[EternalVigilance]

Pretty much every organ of government is now little more than a data collection tool.

[null and void]

I’m pulling for a biblical plague that eliminates the people, but leaves the Smithsonian and monuments intact.