Sen. Warren Introduces Legislation to Save Consumers From 'Equifax Exploitation'

On the heels of Equifax’s massive data breach and its subsequent efforts to force victims into a “rip-off clause” that prevents them from filing class-action lawsuits against the company, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Friday announced that she is both launching an investigation into the credit-reporting giant’s security practices and introducing legislation (pdf) that would “give control over credit and personal information back to consumers.”

“Watch out Equifax. Elizabeth Warren is coming after you.”
—Kate Samuelson, FortuneAlong with placing more power in the hands of consumers and strengthening fraud protections, the legislation—titled the Freedom from Equifax Exploitation (FREE) Act, which Warren introduced alongside Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii)—would also limit the power of companies like Equifax by barring them from “charging consumers for freezing and unfreezing access to their credit files.”

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As the Washington Post‘s Brian Fung notes, consumers are usually charged anywhere from $5 to $10 to freeze and unfreeze their credit, depending on the agency.

“Ending the fees could save millions of Americans from having to pay to protect their own personal data in the aftermath of the data breach at Equifax, which affected 143 million people,” Fung observes.

Warren said in a statement on Friday that “agencies like Equifax make billions of dollars collecting and selling personal data about consumers without their consent, and then make consumers pay if they want to stop the sharing of their own data.”

Passing the FREE Act, Warren concluded, would be “a first step toward reforming the broken credit reporting industry.”

“Credit reporting agencies like Equifax make billions of dollars collecting and selling personal data about consumers without their consent, and then make consumers pay if they want to stop the sharing of their own data,” Warren said in a statement. “Passing this bill is a first step toward reforming the broken credit reporting industry.”