Nationwide group of utility companies ends sale of people’s sensitive information to data brokers

In 2021, the National Consumer Telecom & Utilities Exchange agreed to end the sale of more than 170 million people’s names, home addresses, Social Security numbers, and other personal information gathered from utility companies. The exchange previously had a practice of sharing the personal information collected from customers with credit bureau Equifax, who in turn sold it to private databases like Thomson Reuters CLEAR – frequently used by government agencies, including federal immigration enforcement entities like ICE. This change was applauded by civil rights groups as a “huge step in the right direction.”