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CFPB collecting data from 80% of credit card transactions

September 16, 2013

Another reason to like cash: It can't be data-mined. As outlined in "The CFPB Strategic Plan, Budget, and Performance Plan and Report," the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau intends to capture information from 80 percent of all credit card transactions for "markets monitoring" purposes.

A report by the Washington Examiner said that if the bureau achieves its goal, it will ultimately compile data on 42 billion transactions made by 933 million cards connected to American cardholder accounts over the life of the strategic plan, which spans from 2013 to 2017.

CFPB plans for its "big data" are somewhat obscure. The bureau's planning document says only that the information will "support building an understanding of the markets we regulate and the nature of consumer behavior in these markets."

The document pledged to protect any personally identifiable information, and said that data sets will be anonymous.

However, in a House Financial Services Committee last week, Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., failed to find this reassuring.

"This is one step closer to a Big Brother form of government where they know everything about us," he said.

CFPB director Richard Cordray told the committee that the agency is collecting card data from 110 banks, including American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Discover and Morgan Chase.

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