Coalition Urges Data Brokers Not to Share Information That May Help Create Muslim Registry

Data broker and analytics companies are being urged by a coalition of civil liberties and privacy organizations not to share people's personal information that they collect with the Trump administration because it refused to rule out creating a database of Muslims. The coalition said Sunday it sent a six-page letter to nearly 50 data brokers, saying they "must not be complicit" in President Donald Trump's deportation and detention immigration policies, which could be a "disaster for human rights." The letter noted Trump's executive order restricting travel to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority nations, which is being challenged in court. The administration is expected to unveil a revamped order this week (see 1702160059). The letter said some data brokers like Acxiom, CoreLogic and Recorded Future said they won't help build a registry. It said that even if a few companies agree to provide data or services identifying Muslims or immigrants and that data were misused, "the human rights consequences could be enormous." The letter asks the companies to disclose whether they have refused to share data with the government and also to make a pledge not to share data that could lead to such violations. Some signatories: Amnesty International, Center for Democracy & Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, New America's Open Technology Institute, World Privacy Forum and Alvaro Bedoya, executive director of Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology. The White House didn't comment.