WPF participates in White House Roundtable on Data Brokers

The World Privacy Forum was honored to participate in a White House Roundtable on the topic of Data Brokers, a topic WPF has spent decades researching and working on. In its readout of the roundtable, the White House noted that “Participants underscored how the data broker economy enables discriminatory practices in credit underwriting, insurance, housing, employment, and advertising, continuing patterns of exclusion that disproportionately harm underserved and vulnerable groups.”

Executive Director Pam Dixon spoke at the roundtable, noting in her comments the modern data broker issues related to profiling using encrypted data, utilizing identity resolution techniques to re-identify consumers from large data sets, and the widespread use of purchase histories in data brokering. Her comments reflected new research included in WPF’s regulatory filing with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding data brokers.

Related Documents:

• White House Roundtable on Data Brokers: Statement  

• WPF Comments on the CFPB Data Broker Request for Information (16 pages) 

• The Scoring of America (WPF Report)

• The Federal Government and Data Brokers (WPF Report)

• Top Ten Opt Out List (WPF Consumer Tips )