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Friday, May 30, 2014

Oh goody! Now the feds will know your complete credit history

If you acquired a mortgage later than 1998 kiss your privacy good-bye. Under the pretext of protecting consumers two federal agencies will collect their complete credit history where it will readily available for the next Lois Learner to data mine.
We'd like to know a little bit about you for our files
We'd like to help you learn to help yourself.
 Reversing their previously stated policy the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau posted an April 16 Federal Register notice of an expansion of their joint National Mortgage Database Program. More alarming, the two agencies a hard pressed to to cite a need for this Orwellian sally into personal privacy. The FHFA claims it must compile this massive database to write a monthly mortgage survey and to help it prepare its annual report to congress. The law they cite, the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 does not require any report to congress which seems to have done just fine without it for the past 7 years.
Adding further to the bureaucratic duplicity, when Senator Mike Crapo expressed concern to CFPB Director Richard Cordray last year the Cordray assured him that they were merely collecting aggregate with no personal identifiers. There has either been a change in plans or Cordray is a liar for now every credit transaction you ever made will be within easy reach of any porn gazing, tax evading, federal bureaucrat with whom the agency decides to share your data. The database will indeed have personal identifiers including the mortgage holder’s entire credit history, including delinquent payments, late payments, minimum payments, high account balances and credit scores. Don't feel violated yet? Not to worry. There will also be a second affront. The two agencies will also assemble “household demographic data,” including racial and ethnic data, gender, marital status, religion, education, employment history, military status, household composition, the number of wage earners and a family’s total wealth and assets.
Why does the CFPB need to know your religion? You educational status? Your work history? Who the hell do these people think they are? If we can believe the Chamber of Commerce this is tantamount to a rogue operation since the creation of the database is not authorized by congress and may be forbidden under Dodd Frank, the same law that gave us the CFPB, the ultimate, uber bureaucracy that was designed to answer to no one. It is not the case that the Chamber of Commerce has gone libertarian but it recognizes the liability its members may face in court after they have divulged confidential information to an agency that has no right to have it.
We have a government that cannot be trusted to enforce immigration law, to fairly administer the ACA law, or to grant tax exempt status without prejudice yet this same government needs to know every place you have ever worked, every credit card purchase you have made, and even your ethic heritage. Enough is enough! A massive reduction in federal power is long past due.
  Coo coo ca-choo, Mrs. Robinson

1 comment:

  1. I read this earlier today. Unfortunately I've been watching the British series "The Last Enemy" the last couple days. It's from 2008; the plot involves everyone having a national ID card, which means you can't do anything without it. This is horrifying; with a database like this, one wonders how far behind a national ID card is. The one thing about Snowden is that I think he's awakened younger people to this danger.

    What I want to know is what the heck do we have a Congress for? Do they do ANYTHING? Or are the Republicans just waiting to step into the limelight to enjoy the privileges of power themselves? This is discouraging.

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