On August 14, the CFPB announced that it will cease publishing unverified consumer complaint narratives and associated data visualizations in the Consumer Complaint Database. The Bureau stated that the publication of such narratives is discretionary and confers minimal utility while “often causing confusion and providing misleading data.” In the Bureau’s view, complaint narratives capture only negative consumer experiences, reflect one side of an issue, do not always describe violations of law, and are not verified through the complaint process. According to the Bureau, publishing these narratives therefore presents a “less-than-representative sample of one-sided experiences” that cannot offer consumers a balanced and accurate view of companies’ compliance with their legal obligations. The CFPB further cautioned that continued publication could confuse consumers and unnecessarily harm companies’ reputations. The CFPB also noted that previously published narratives are considered in the public domain for Freedom of Information Act purposes. As previously covered by InfoBytes, this follows changes to the consumer complaint system that the Bureau announced in June, seeking to mitigate the system’s purported “abuse.”