A federal agency is considering regulatory action to better protect U.S. consumers from “excessive surveillance”.
This topic was presented in October of 2023 by director Rohit Chopra during a Brookings Institution event. Brookings Institution is described as a D.C – based think tank.
Toward the end of his remarks, Chopra laid out a number of steps the CFPB seeks to take to protect U.S. consumers.
Steps include
- getting more information from big tech firms about personal data use and private currency issuance
- examining non-banks that offer consumer payment platforms
- publishing a proposed rule about personal financial data rights, Chopra said during the event, titled “Making America’s payment system work for a digital century.”
That proposed rule will be published later this month, Chopra noted.
“It’s critically important for American consumers to have stronger protections against excessive surveillance and misuse of our data,” Chopra said.
Chopra also discussed a recent move by PayPal that caught the government agency’s attention.
“Last October PayPal updated its regulations to give itself the power to levy fines and take punitive actions against users engaged in conduct that would not otherwise violate federal or state law,” Chopra said.
PayPal went on to withdraw the regulation, Chopra said. But he noted that merchants using similar platforms report being “censored and muzzled.”
Over the past few years, we have seen individuals and businesses have their bank accounts closed by their financial institutions after the individuals made controversial statements.
“I fear that the U.S. is lurching toward a consolidated market structure like the one that has emerged in China that blurs the lines between payments and commerce and creates the incentives for excessive surveillance and even financial censorship,” Chopra said.
