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Article

18 Mar 2021

Author:
Cat Zakrzewski, Washington Post

USA: Activists sue Thomson Reuters over its sale of personal data

A coalition of activists is bringing a lawsuit against media and data conglomerate Thomson Reuters, accusing the company of illegally selling data belonging to California residents without their consent.

The privacy advocates are suing the company following revelations last month that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were using a Thomson Reuters database, called CLEAR, that contained hundreds of millions of phone, water, electricity and other utility records while pursuing immigration violations.

The database includes records connected to employment, credit reports, criminal histories and vehicle registrations, from utility companies in all 50 states, as my colleague Drew Harwell reported. CLEAR is among a suite of “legal investigation software solution” products that Thomson Reuters, based in Toronto, sells to a broad range of companies and public agencies. Thomson Reuters, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has said in documents that the data about utilities comes from the credit-reporting giant Equifax.

Cat Brooks, a Black activist who is one of the plaintiffs, said in the lawsuit that the database contains a “360-degree view of her life,” despite her efforts to protect her personal data and a subscription to a service that regularly scrubs her personal information from the Internet. She found that a wide range of personal information, including her address, cellphone number, and information about her relatives were all available in the database without her consent.

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