- When you open a credit card or change your address, that data is shared with credit bureaus and then sold to data brokers like Thomson Reuters without your explicit consent.
- ICE buys this credit header data through Thomson Reuters' CLEAR tool for immigration enforcement and voter fraud investigations, often without a warrant.
- The data supply chain involves Equifax and Experian providing credit header records to Thomson Reuters, which then sells access to government agencies like ICE.
- Privacy advocates and Senator Ron Wyden condemn this practice as a violation of privacy and call for legislative action to close legal loopholes.
- Data quality issues can lead to inaccurate address information, potentially causing ICE to target the wrong locations.
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a rule to restrict this data sale, but it was gutted under the Trump administration.