New federal database would contain details on 227 million Americans

Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP

Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP

Two independent federal agencies are coming under attack after calling for the creation of a nation-wide database that would collect the Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information of as many as 227 million Americans.

That’s what the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau asked for, at least, with an April 16
Federal Register notice of expansion that failed to garner
attention of the media until Friday this week. That morning,
Richard Pollock at the Washington Examiner wrote that the creation
of a new national database as outlined in last month’s memo would
contradict previously stated policy and put the personal details
pertaining to hundreds of millions of Americans in one shared
database.

“FHFA will manage the database and share it with CFPB,”
Pollock wrote. “A CFPB internal planning document for 2013-17
describes the bureau as monitoring 95 percent of all mortgage
transactions.”

According to the notice of expansion posted last month, the
database would satisfy requirements of the Housing and Economic
Recovery Act of 2008, as well as help it prepare an annual report
given to Congress. In doing as much, however, the agencies want
their hands on more than just a few miniscule details.

The records the agencies want to plug into the new database
include loan-level data in five dimensions: mortgage logs, real
estate transactions, household demographic data on the borrower,
physical characteristics pertaining to the house and neighborhood
and a full credit report, the agencies acknowledged. In the fine
print, though, the FHFA and CFPB say they want to collect more
than just a few tidbits.

Elsewhere in the notice,the agencies state that “Records in
the system may include without limitation
” the likes of not
only basic borrower information, such as name, address and zip
code, but also ethnicity, gender, language, religion, social
security number, education records and military status.

In response, Pollock wrote, at least two members of Congress have
raised concerns, and in a recent letter to FHFA Director Mel
Wattand CFPB Director Richard Cordray spoke up about their
objections. According to the Rep.Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and
Sen.Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the creation of the database as sought
by the agencies last month “represents an unwarranted
intrusion into the private lives of ordinary Americans, and can
be easily perceived as an abuse of the trust placed in your
agencies by the American people. “

Watt and Cordray’s concerns might come too little, too late: as
Pollock acknowledged, only 12 members of the American public
submitted comments after the notice of expansion was posted on
April 16. Nevertheless, lawmakers are now starting to speak up.

“When you look at the kinds of data that are going to be
collected on individuals, just about anything about you is going
to be in this database,”
Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas)
told the Examiner.

According to The Hill, both the US Chamber of Commerce and
the National Association of Federal Credit Unions have raised
concerns as well.

Source Article from http://rt.com/usa/162644-fhfa-cfpb-federal-database/

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