Protect your data, control your credit

Companies should improve privacy and security to keep our credit and finances safe.

Every few months a major data breach makes headlines. In 2025, it was a breach of 184 million account logins and passwords.   The data thieves can use the stolen data to impersonate a company we do business with or even a friend or relative.

Breaches like this will happen again. We need more control over our data, more tools to protect ourselves from theft and stronger repercussions for companies that lose our information.

We stand up to protect the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s capacity to enforce strict laws against identity theft,  protecting your credit rights, and providing tools to help you recover from fraud.

Credit report freezes stop identity thieves in their tracks.

With our coalition partners, we fought to establish the right of consumers to “freeze” their credit reports to protect them from identity thieves. Only after the 2017 Equifax breach did Congress finally step in and pass a national law to make credit freezes free.

Here's how it works. When you (or an identity thief who’s posing as you) apply for a new credit card or loan, the lender checks your credit reports. If your credit reports are frozen, the lender can’t access them and won’t issue you (or an identity thief) a new line of credit. Consumers can lift the freeze at any time to make a legitimate transaction. This website has all the steps:  https://www.usa.gov/credit-freeze