{"id":10055,"date":"2024-12-31T09:34:01","date_gmt":"2024-12-31T16:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=10055"},"modified":"2025-05-20T08:43:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T15:43:31","slug":"epic-cfpb-complaint-rocket-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2024\/12\/31\/epic-cfpb-complaint-rocket-money\/","title":{"rendered":"EPIC CFPB Complaint: Rocket Money"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rocket Money<\/a> is advertising hard on Disney+, which I only have because it was cheaper to get the package instead of Hulu and ESPN+ alone, mainly for UFC events. Rocket Money is connected to Rocket Mortgage which are spin offs from Intuit, but basically big tech wanting to have access to all of your financial information for data harvesting and their own sales (there are a few of these operations). The first thing you do is link a bank account and pick a subscription, and they get access to all of your financial information. The complaint below shows just about what you’d expect from a megacorp with shady business practices. Consequently, decades ago I used to use standalone Quicken to manage finances, but now Gnucash<\/a> and the webpages of the banks and companies I deal with using virtual credit card numbers. You don’t have to pay a dime or share any financial information with anyone to budget and track finances. And your bank and credit card company these days usually will give you access to your credit report and score, and you’re not really giving up information they don’t already have access to. But do read those privacy policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/epic.org\/documents\/epic-cfpb-complaint-rocket-money\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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DOWNLOAD in-re-rocket-exhibits-combined pdf 9.7MB<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On behalf of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the NYU Tech Law and Policy Clinic filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against financial technology company Rocket Money (formerly Truebill), alleging unfair, deceptive, and abusive trade practices and violations of the the Fair Credit Reporting Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint alleges that the manipulative design of Rocket Money\u2019s interface and its misleading representations to consumers are unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices under the Dodd-Frank Act. While Rocket Money advertises itself as free, the labyrinthine design of its sign-up process extracts fees from users. Rocket Money also advertises strong data privacy practices to its users, claiming that it takes data privacy \u201cvery seriously. Like the most seriously\u201d and promising its users that \u201cwe\u2019ll never sell your data.<\/em>\u201d But provisions in Rocket Money\u2019s Privacy Policy contradict these promises, acknowledging that \u201cRocket has shared personal information with third parties or Affiliates, in exchange for valuable consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, Rocket Money operates as a consumer reporting agency but fails to abide by the requirements for consumer reporting agencies set out in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). For example, it shares reports about its customers without having a \u201cpermissible purpose\u201d to do so. Rocket Money likewise obtains and uses its customers\u2019 credit reports to engage in self-promotional marketing, another violation of the FCRA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this filing, EPIC further expands its advocacy for consumer protection and data privacy into the fintech space. EPIC has commented<\/a> on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau inquiry into big tech payment platforms and recommended<\/a> that the Bureau strengthen Buy Now Pay Later data practices. EPIC also recently advocated<\/a> that the Federal Trade Commission use all of its authorities<\/a> to protect consumers, including its Section 5 rulemaking authority to promulgate<\/a> a commercial surveillance rule and establish a data minimization<\/a> rule. EPIC encourages the CFPB to protect consumers from data privacy harms in the fintech industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Complaint with Exhibits available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complaint without Exhibits available here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exhibits only available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rocket Money is advertising hard on Disney+, which I only have because it was cheaper to get the package instead of Hulu and ESPN+ alone, mainly for UFC events. Rocket Money is connected to Rocket Mortgage which are spin offs from Intuit, but basically big tech wanting to have access to all of your financial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10055"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11914,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10055\/revisions\/11914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}