DATA & PRIVACY

Problem

Americans are living in the largest data collection experiment, with almost no protections or control.

Corporations, governments, and foreign actors harvest, buy, sell, and store our personal information with little oversight, while ordinary people have no meaningful control over it.

What is collected is staggering:

• Location tracking

• Browsing history

• Purchase habits

• Biometric data

• Health and mental health information

• Genetic data

• Voice and facial recognition

• Political preferences

• Social media behavior patterns

The result: A relentless surveillance economy thrives on our private lives, threatening our freedoms.

The reality in numbers

Corporate surveillance

• The global data market is worth more than 300 billion dollars annually.

• Roughly 80 percent of websites use hidden tracking tools.

• The average American’s data is bought and sold thousands of times per year.

Zero federal protection

• The United States has no comprehensive federal privacy law.

• Europe’s GDPR covers 450 million people.

• U.S. consumers remain unprotected

Companies profit, families pay

• Data brokers build profiles without consent.

• Information is sold to:

  • Advertisers

  • Insurance companies

  • Credit scorers

  • Political campaigns

  • Foreign entities

Cyberattacks are constant

• Over 2,200 data breaches per year.

• Tens of millions of Americans have their medical, financial, or identity data leaked each year.

• Breaches cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars.

Government surveillance loopholes

• Agencies purchase private data from brokers to bypass warrant rules.

• Facial recognition is deployed in airports, schools, and policing with little transparency.

• Protesters, immigrants, and journalists are disproportionately targeted.

Children are most vulnerable.

• By age 13, companies have collected over 70 million data points on the average child.

• School apps sell data to advertisers without parental permission.

Privacy today is becoming alarmingly rare—a privilege for the few.

Power and wealth increasingly dictate who exploits data and who suffers the consequences. The urgency has never been clearer.

Solutions

1. A national data privacy law with real teeth

• Require clear, plain-language consent for data collection.

• Ban the collection of unnecessary data.

• Guarantee the right to:

  • Access your data

  • Correct it

  • Delete it permanently

• Limit how long companies can store personal information.

Impact: Individuals gain practical control, reducing unwanted data use and risks.

2. Ban the sale of personal data

• Prohibit data brokers from selling or sharing personal information without explicit opt-in.

• Outlaw micro targeting for:

  • Political manipulation

  • Predatory marketing

• Stop companies from profiting off private lives.

The outcome: people are no longer treated as products.

3. Secure data like the national infrastructure

• Mandatory breach notification within 72 hours

• Minimum cybersecurity standards across:

  • Hospitals

  • Schools

  • Financial institutions

  • Critical infrastructure

• Heavy fines for preventable leaks

Impact: Stronger data security means fewer instances of identity theft and reduced national risk.

4. Stop government end-runs around the Fourth Amendment

• Prohibit agencies from buying data without warrants.

• Restrict facial recognition and biometric collection.

• Ban surveillance of:

  • Protesters

  • Journalists

  • Immigrant communities

• Require oversight and public transparency.

Impact: Civil liberties are preserved, and unlawful surveillance decreases.

5. Protect kids first

• Ban targeted advertising to minors.

• Require schools and youth apps to adhere to strict privacy rules.

• Offer parents full control of:

  • Tracking permissions

  • Data deletion

Impact: Children grow up free from data tracking and profiling.

6. Put people above profit

• Make privacy the default, not a luxury.

• Hold executives personally liable for repeated violations.

• Force companies to engineer privacy into systems, not bolt it on after harm is done

Impact: Corporations, not individuals, are held accountable for privacy.

Bottom Line

Americans deserve privacy by default, not surveillance.

This means:

• Your data belongs to you.

• Companies can no longer profit from surveillance.

• The government cannot spy without warrants.

• Children grow up protected, not tracked.

• Security and consent become non-negotiable.

A free society cannot function when every movement, search, and conversation is harvested, stored, and monetized.

Privacy is not optional. It is an emergency demand.

It is a cornerstone of democracy and personal freedom.