Congress finds data brokers cost consumers tens of billions of dollars

A congressional investigation, prompted by reporting from The Markup and CalMatters, found that breaches at major data brokers and credit agencies exposed hundreds of millions of Americans and likely led to approximately $20.8 billion in identity-theft losses; the reporting also uncovered brokers using “no-index” tags to hide opt-out pages, prompting firms to make opt-out mechanisms more visible and regulators to push for stronger oversight.