CFPB Intends to Lift Hold on Collecting Consumer Data

The CFPB will soon resume collecting consumers’ personally identifiable information, lifting a freeze on data collection.  Mulvaney announced his intention to end the freeze in an email circulated to staff on May 31, 2018.

Soon after Mulvaney was named acting CFPB Director in November 2017, he placed a hold on the agency’s collection of personal data.  In his email, Mulvaney explained the decision as an “abundance of caution and a desire to protect Americans’ privacy,” stemming from concern over data security and the possibility that consumer data “could fall prey to hackers or other actors.”

Since the hold, Mulvaney has instituted an “exhaustive review by outside experts” to evaluate the security of the CFPB’s information collection systems.  While the specifics of this outside review are not public, Mulvaney announced that the review concluded that “externally facing Bureau systems appear to be well-secured.”  Recommendations made by the review are currently being addressed.

Mulvaney concluded his announcement by reassuring the staff that “[t]his process has been an important exercise in holding ourselves to the same high standards to which we hold the entities we oversee.”