Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
A nationwide group of companies from the power, water, cable TV, and telecommunications sectors have agreed that they will no longer sell customer information to data brokers used by ICE and law enforcement agencies. The news has been hailed as an important step by privacy advocates, who have long criticized the practice as a privacy violation that lets law enforcement obtain personal information from third parties without appropriate review.
The announcement comes from a letter sent Wednesday by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and reported by The Washington Post.
The companies concerned belong to the National Consumer Telecom & Utilities Exchange (NCTUE), a credit reporting agency that lets…
