Every day, we each generate data that is being sold and resold by corporations.
By some measures, this information is more valuable than oil. It allows ads to be targeted to us, provides market research to companies, and is increasingly being relied on for AI and other applications that we don’t fully understand.
You can’t turn it off. Your phone is collecting data on you even when it’s in your pocket, and the data generated by people connected to you online is being used to draw conclusions about your preferences and activities. In some cases, that information is even being used to influence your opinion or feed you propaganda.
At the same time, we have very few protections from the collection of this information. Privacy Policies posted on websites passively have us signing away almost all of our rights behind legalese that you’d need a degree to understand. Companies fail to protect this information, resulting in increasingly frequent data breaches that expose our personal information to criminals.
We need a digital bill of rights that protect this information, including:
- The right to be informed about what data is being collected
- The right to opt out of data collection
- The right to learn what information a company has on you, and
- The right to have it deleted
- The right to prevent information you’ve willingly provided to one company from being sold or shared with others
- The right to be informed of the theft of your data in a timely manner, and the right to be compensated for that breach
These companies are making millions off of our data. It’s time that they treated it responsibly and received informed consent from us before doing so.
Problems to be Solved:
- Corporations are collecting data on us without our knowledge or consent.
- Our data is being monetized without us sharing in the profits.
- This data is being used for increasingly dangerous purposes, including targeting us with propaganda, fueling AI, and allowing for increasingly onerous surveillance.
“By implementing measures to increase transparency in the data collection and monetization process, individuals can begin to reclaim ownership of what’s theirs.”
–Andrew Yang
Solutions:
- Build off of the work done in Europe and California to increase privacy rights and rights over data generated by our activities.
- Limit the uses of this data until we better understand the technologies they’re fueling.
- Create a data dividend, paid out by the companies that are monetizing this information.
- Create a Digital Bill of Rights that clearly define how companies are allowed to collect, use, and store this information about us.
If this sounds like the future you want to build for America, consider donating today!
Do you agree?
