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... The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed the rules in December following a string of high-profile scandals that shed light on the massive amounts of personal data being stored and sold off, in some cases to criminals and scammers.

The rules would have reclassified certain data brokers as "consumer reporting agencies," meaning they'd be subject to strict requirements for accuracy and transparency, and only allowed to sell data for recognized purposes such as credit checks or employment screening. And no, marketing doesn't count.

Now?

Well, never mind.

"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is withdrawing its Notice of Proposed Rule: Protecting Americans from Harmful Data Broker Practices (Regulation V)," the agency said in an official filing.

"The bureau has determined that legislative rulemaking is not necessary or appropriate at this time to address the subject matter of the NPRM [Notice of Proposed Rulemaking]. The bureau will not take any further action on the NPRM."

The potential for abuse and misuse is significant. Brokers can collect purchasing information from apps, for example, or collect the identities of people who've been in the vicinity of women's health clinics or at a protest, then cross-reference it to create fairly detailed profiles. A huge source of this data comes from app developers selling out their users, which is one of the reasons why a downloaded game wants all your data in exchange. ...