The practice of collecting, profiling and selling personal information gathered from Internet users is very common. Consumer profile lists are often one of the most valued assets of a retailing or marketing firm. Many companies have been criticized for compiling detailed profiles of users without their knowledge. Firms use algorithms to determine which ad to display on a consumer’s device, or to predict their buying habits. These formulas can be used to create a digital picture of a viewer to infer race, gender or sexual orientation, among other things. Critics claim this technology has the potential to eclipse longstanding civil rights protections in how personal information is used in housing, credit, employment, health, education and the marketplace. They say algorithm data can also be used to discriminate and to make judgments, right or wrong, about who is likely to show up at work, pay their mortgage on time, or require expensive medical treatment.

The U.S. currently has no comprehensive data privacy laws and with the rise of AI and other technologies, consumers are vulnerable to fraud, security breaches, and predatory behavior online. Data collectors claim they provide a beneficial service and that collecting consumer data is protected by our First Amendment. Critics believe that collecting data about our online behavior in an invasion of our right to privacy. They believe that only consumers should decide whether their profiles are collected, personalized or sold.

Proposed Legislation: Reintroduction of S.3337 - DATA Privacy Act (118th Congress 2023-2024)
Prospective Sponsor: Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (NV)

• I oppose reforming current online data collection policy and wish to donate resources to the campaign committee of Leader John Thune (SD).
• I support strengthening online protections for consumers by requiring business, educational, and administrative operations to implement data security and privacy protections which include:
  
  1.) Employing privacy enhancing technology to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of an individual’s covered data in data or sets of data or de-identification, anonymization, or pseudonymization technologies or techniques, filtering tools, anti-tracking technology, differential privacy tools, synthetic data generation tools, cryptographic techniques (such as secure multi-party computation and homomorphic encryption), or systems for federated learning.
  
  2.) Posting in an accessible location a notice that is concise, in context, in easily understandable language, accurate, clear, timely, updated, uses visualizations where appropriate, conspicuous, and free of charge regarding the covered entity’s privacy practices.
  
  3.) Requiring covered entities to provide individuals to opt-out of any collection, processing, storage, or disclosure of covered data linked to an individual.
  
  4.) Providing civil enforcement actions by the attorney general of a State that has reason to believe an interest of the residents of that State has been or is threatened or adversely affected by the engagement of any person in a practice that violates this Act
  
  And wish to donate resources to the campaign committee of Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) and/or to an advocate group currently working with this issue.