The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a proposal on Tuesday to bring data brokers under the reach of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, saying the unregulated collection and sale of consumers' personal information raised national security concerns.

If finalized, the proposed rule would have the federal agency treating data broker sales of a person’s credit history, credit score, debt payments, or income or financial tier as credit report sales subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which states that consumer report sales may only be conducted for permissible purposes, such as for employment or insurance reasons, or with consumers' written consent.