Published: October 2015

Advocates urge regulators to investigate Experian breach

Consumer and data privacy advocates are asking federal regulators to investigate the breach at credit bureau Experian, which compromised the personal information of millions of T-Mobile customers.

Consumer Action joined dozens of consumer advocate groups and privacy organizations in signing an open letter to the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau urging them to launch an investigation into the breach.

“We believe this breach, occurring at one of the nationwide CRAs [consumer reporting agencies], takes this problem to a whole new and dangerous level given the extraordinarily large amounts of critical financial information they hold,” according to the letter. “Identity thieves could play havoc of an unimaginably huge scale with access to such data, with potentially devastating consequences to consumers, financial institutions, and the American economy.”

Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus in the U.S., holds personal data on more than 200 million people. Last week, Experian and T-Mobile disclosed a breach at the credit bureau that compromised the personal information of 15 million of the carrier's customers, including names, addresses, birthdates and encrypted Social Security numbers, driver's license and passport numbers.

Lead Organization

National Consumer Law Center (NCLC)

Other Organizations

Americans for Financial Reform | Center for Digital Democracy | Center for Economic Justice | ConnPIRG | Consumer Action | Consumer Assistance Council, Hyannis, MA | Consumer Federation of America | Consumer Federation of California | Consumer Watchdog | Consumers Union | Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) | Illinois PIRG | Massachusetts Consumers' Coalition | Maryland PIRG | MASSPIRG | National Association of Consumer Advocates | National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients) | National Consumers League | New Economy Project-NYC | PennPIRG | Privacy Rights Clearinghouse | Reinvestment Partners | U.S. PIRG | Virginia Citizens Consumer Council | VPIRG | WashPIRG | WISPIRG | Woodstock Institute | World Privacy Forum

More Information

To read the full letter, please click here.

For more information, please visit NCLC's website.

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