Privacy Bill Triggers Lobbying Surge by Data Brokers ⇥ politico.com

Alfred Ng, Politico:

Congress has never been closer to passing a federal data privacy law — and the brokers that profit from information on billions of people are spending big to nudge the legislation in their favor.

[…]

The brokers, including U.K.-based data giant RELX and credit reporting agency TransUnion, want changes to the bill — such as an easing of data-sharing restrictions that RELX says would hamper investigations of crimes. Some data brokers also want clearer permission to use third-party data for advertising purposes.

The only surprising part of this is that data brokers are bragging about being treated as an extension of law enforcement. Imagine being thrilled to live in a police state, so long as it is privatized.