Most of us don’t spend much of our time thinking about our digital footprint. We go about our day just living our lives. However, that doesn’t mean our data isn’t thinking about us. Nearly every single thing we do creates a personalized, digital signature that can tell anyone everything about your life if they know where to look and can pay the price.
Make a purchase with a debit or credit card? Information logged. Have a rewards point account or loyalty points with a grocery/retail store? Purchases tracked. Use your phone, tablet, computer, digital assistant, smart watch, or watch a digitally-connected TV? Your data is recorded. Smart appliances, web activity, social media posts, digital reading history, digital vehicle navigation, ring cameras, Wi-Fi, smart cars….the list goes on. Literally every second of your day, from the most basic actions to your innermost thoughts, is being logged, tracked, and sold without your knowledge or consent. And there’s very little you can do about it. In America, it’s become the price of participating in our capitalist society. We are counting on the market to manage itself. But the data IS the market and there is little to no regulation.
Companies that used to have a business model based on a product or service now pull significant revenue from selling your data. You become the product. Companies spent nearly $140B on internet advertising in 2020. Companies use your data for predictive analytics, combing through the digital data of your life to know when you might be ready to buy a house or car, start a new job, start a family, or make another big-ticket purchase. This way they can be more targeted and specific in their sales and marketing efforts to make sure they are capturing your individual attention – because they already know all about you. If you’ve ever thought it feels like social media is reading your mind or it feels like your phone is listening to you, it’s because technology has created an opportunity to create an incredibly rich and complex picture of an individual – based on hundreds of thousands of discrete pieces of information – and piece it together to tell your whole life story in a series of ones and zeroes. And it refreshes that picture with new data every 15 minutes.
It’s scary stuff. What’s even scarier is what people are only starting to talk about. Companies are not the only ones accessing your data. The government is purchasing information from data brokers to help them skirt local laws and ordinances that are supposed to offer people protection from overreach and what is arguably unreasonable search.
For instance, with the reversal of Roe v Wade, state or local governments can purchase a digital profile that includes online search history and have it cross-referenced with bank statements and geo-fenced data from a person’s phone to prosecute a pregnant person from an abortion-hostile state for accessing abortion care in a state where it is legal.
With the reversal of Roe v Wade, state/local governments can purchase a digital profile and cross-reference it with banks and geo-fenced data from a phone to prosecute a pregnant person for accessing abortion care in another state. Click To TweetU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is purchasing information from LexisNexis, a subscription-based data broker, to circumvent sanctuary protections enacted throughout hundreds of U.S. counties. They are able to obtain private data without a warrant and then feed that data to local Sheriffs and law enforcement agencies to begin enforcement actions.
ICE is purchasing information to circumvent sanctuary protections enacted throughout hundreds of U.S. counties. They are able to obtain private data without a warrant and then feed that data to local Sheriffs. Click To TweetThe framers of the constitution had no frame of reference (pun intended) for a government using data brokers to break into a person’s private social media accounts and use information to prosecute someone who crossed state lines to access a legal medical procedure. This technology wasn’t even a dream at that point.
Because there is no national law that regulates the collection, dissemination, and sale of personal identifying data, companies can do what they want. The privilege is buried in the fine print of every service agreement you accept when using a product or service. Sometimes collection of data isn’t even disclosed. Some companies collect data in an effort to better understand how people use their products. There are microchips in everything from garage door openers to smoke detectors that can track the date and time a product was activated, how many times it was used, and even log environmental data (temperature), amount of light available, etc. There are no rules that state how and when companies can use this info. And business is BIG. We generate quintillions of bytes of data every day. (That’s 1,000,000,000,000,000,000+.)
Because there is no national law that regulates the collection, dissemination, and sale of personal identifying data, companies can do what they want. The privilege is buried in the fine print of every service agreement you accept. Click To TweetThe warnings about data privacy have gotten steadily louder. Back in 2013, Edward Snowden’s revelations about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) use of data for intelligence monitoring and military action was one of the first times many people realized the extent to which their lives were monitored. However, out of sight, out of mind. Your data, regardless of how ubiquitous it is in everyday life, is largely invisible. Unless you get a letter or email from a company letting you know their data has been breached and your personal information was potentially compromised, most people don’t give it another thought. Europe, Canada, and even Russia have stronger data privacy protections than the U.S. Many elected representatives don’t even understand the problem as it exists. Data brokers use proprietary means to access billions of points of both public and private data and package that data for sale. Though the practice has become foundational to the American economy, it still isn’t really understood.
In 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States found that the government’s requisition of a person’s cell phone records from a wireless carrier was considered a Fourth Amendment search, which would require a warrant. However, going through a data broker, at least now, is being used as a workaround. California, Virginia, and Colorado have passed legislation to protect state residents’ personal data that are set to take effect in 2023. The laws are vague and difficult to enforce. Some only apply to companies who do business in a specific state. Some have to have at least $25 mil in revenue or have the data of at least 25,000 consumers.
We need strong Federal protections of data privacy rights. Data mining is too widespread, too complex, and too embedded into our daily lives for state level protections to make any measurable impact. We need to hold companies accountable for the data they collect and the ways in which they use it.
In June, the drafts of the American Data Privacy and Protection act was released by both the House and Senate to move us closer to a federal standard. The act as written is not perfect. There are many loopholes, and it would still be difficult for individuals to seek relief from violations. However, it is a first and critical step toward holding companies accountable for the ways in which they use our data. In the meantime, step carefully online.
In June, the drafts of the American Data Privacy and Protection act was released. It is a first and critical step toward holding companies accountable for the ways they use our data. Click To Tweet
