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Utilities End Sale of Data to ICE

December 08, 2021 (1 min read)

Drew Harwell, Washington Post, Dec. 8, 2021

"A nationwide group of utility companies that provided sensitive data from millions of Americans’ cable, phone and power bills to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other government agencies has agreed to end the practice in response to concerns the information was being misused.  After The Post revealed ICE’s use of the data in February, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) pushed the National Consumer Telecom & Utilities Exchange to end the sale of more than 170 million people’s names, home addresses, Social Security numbers and other details gathered from companies that provide the essential elements of modern life.  The exchange had given the information, known as utility header data, to the credit bureau Equifax, which then sold it for use in databases, such as Thomson Reuters’ CLEAR, that are searched by private investigators, government agencies and the police."

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