Washington, DC — Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued guidance warning companies to respect federal privacy laws when using online, credit report-style services to assess and surveil their workers. Many companies have started making important employment decisions based on opaque, online and AI-driven services that collect sensitive, personal information about workers. The CFPB’s guidance warns that companies using these services must abide by Fair Credit Reporting Act standards requiring employers to obtain workers’ consent, be transparent about how this data is used and provide workers an opportunity to dispute inaccurate information.
The following is a statement from Demand Progress Education Fund Corporate Power Director Emily Peterson-Cassin:
“Shady, invasive firms are meticulously tracking the digital footprints of all Americans and selling that information, not only to the government, but also to our employers. The CFPB and Director Chopra are taking needed action to prevent companies from recklessly using sensitive, personal data to surveil their workers and make crucial management and hiring decisions about them. The Fair Credit Reporting Act has accuracy, fairness and privacy standards for companies that handle our sensitive information—and that applies to employers buying online dossiers of their workers’ digital histories and social media activity.”