WPF Comments: Access to the CFPB consumer complaint database is vital to understanding and analyzing identity theft in the US
WPF has urged the CFPB to continue to maintain its consumer complaint database and make complaints available to the public. The CFPB is considering multiple potential changes to its consumer complaint database, including reducing access, among other potential changes.
In its comments, WPF explained how CFPB consumer complaint data has been vital to our ability to research and analyze where the crime of medical identity theft is trending in the US over time. WPF presented our most recent work on medical identity theft to the FTC during its Informational Harms workshop in December, 2017. The analysis in the report included data from the CFPB consumer complaint database. The full report, The Geography of Medical Identity Theft, is located at https://www.worldprivacyforum.org/2017/12/new-report-the-geography-of-medical-identity-theft/ for more information.
As one of the most important national and searchable consumer complaint databases, it is essential for the CFPB database to remain in good working order, and if anything, be expanded.