Today, most of our communication, information gathering, and commerce is conducted through smart devices and the internet. Unfortunately, we have been forced to sacrifice some freedom in exchange for more knowledge and convenience. Technology conglomerates have grown so large that they have the power to influence elections, indoctrinate kids, and take away people’s livelihoods. Lawmakers have struggled to find consensus for bills that would hold tech companies accountable for their actions. Still, with the recent passage of the “Tik Tok Divestment” bill and new legislation to protect data privacy, we may be seeing a change in attitudes in Washington.
A key part of Big Tech’s success is the ability to collect data on every user. They have created sophisticated algorithms that can predict an individual’s shopping needs and target that person with curated advertisements in their social media feeds. There have even been instances of family members accidentally finding out pregnancy news because of changes in targeted advertisements. As former Forbes author Kashmir Hill puts it, these companies have figured out “how to data-mine its way into your womb.” That alone sounds eerie enough for Congress to step in.
This week, Representative Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-WA) and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced a much-needed data privacy bill. As Chairs of the commerce committees in their respective chambers and being a bipartisan duo, the chances of passing such a bill are better than most. Chair McMorris Rogers stated:
This landmark legislation gives Americans the right to control where their information goes and who can sell it. It reins in Big Tech by prohibiting them from tracking, predicting, and manipulating people’s behaviors for profit without their knowledge and consent. Americans overwhelmingly want these rights, and they are looking to us, their elected representatives, to act.
Specifically, the bill minimizes the data that companies can collect and use and allows individuals access to that data. Users can then decide what happens to their data. If companies overstep their responsibilities within this bill, consumers have a right to sue.
Currently, the bill is deemed a “discussion draft” which means they are open to strengthening the bill further. The ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) has some ideas including “heightened protections for our nation’s young people.” This could be a nod to the Senate’s Kids Online Safety Act (S. 1409) which has garnered sixty-five bipartisan sponsors. Last September, attendees at Eagle Council 2023 lobbied their Senators in favor of the bill.
Even though conversations surrounding Big Tech’s data collection have come to the forefront in recent years, it’s not a new issue. The federal government has always collected data on people through its various programs. Phyllis Schlafly, our Eagle Forum founder, frequently voiced concerns about the federal government and other entities collecting data from Americans and using that data in sinister ways. She warned about the lack of access individuals have to their own data as well as the fact that there are few protections regarding the use of our personal and sensitive information. In 1999, she testified before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection in support of a bill that gave consumers access to their data while excluding protections for those who misuse that data. As she later wrote:
No one should be able to own facts about other people. Our names and numbers, and also the laws we must obey, should not be property that can be owned by corporations and policed by federal courts.
Eagle Forum has supported data privacy for decades. The details of our private lives should not be made available to the federal government, massive corporations, or foreign entities. Congress is moving in the right direction by allowing the American people to have control over their own data.