Today, as Americans’ personal data has become increasingly commodified, the need for robust federal data privacy protections has never been more urgent. However, despite broad bipartisan agreement from elected officials in Washington D.C. that something has to be done to shore up consumers’ privacy rights, Congress has so far failed to address the issue. Thankfully, U.S. Congresswoman Lori Trahan is working to fix that by taking on the real culprits — data brokers — that are endangering Americans’ private information.
Data brokers are companies that work in the shadows to collect and store vast amounts of consumers’ personal information, often without Americans’ knowledge or consent. This information, which typically includes sensitive details about financial information, medical records, and personal habits, is sold and exploited for profit. Concerningly, because there are few transparency requirements or regulations for data brokers, these companies often sell users’ data to the highest bidder, including to malicious actors and foreign entities.
Predictably, this has created a privacy nightmare for American consumers.
Consumer watchdogs and elected officials have warned that the sale of Americans’ information by data brokers poses significant national security concerns. Reports have found that foreign adversaries have exploited sensitive consumer data in order to steal intellectual property, and cyber attackers have used information obtained from data brokers to engage in phishing attacks, endangering critical infrastructure.
Additionally, sensitive data can often make its way into the hands of bad actors looking to target vulnerable communities and groups. Just recently, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, of Oregon, a data privacy expert in Congress, penned an op-ed explaining how data brokers sell the ability to track phones that visit abortion clinics and follow them across state lines all the way to their owners’ homes. In 2015, similar reports found that a Massachusetts-based data broker secretly tracked women visiting abortion clinics and sold real-time ad access to those devices to anti-abortion groups who ran manipulative targeted ads to women while they were sitting in clinic waiting rooms.
Thankfully, Congresswoman Trahan is fighting to rein in data brokers and place much-needed guardrails up surrounding how Americans’ data is collected and used.
In April, she introduced the bipartisan Data Elimination and Limiting Extensive Tracking and Exchange (DELETE) Act, a bill that would take a critical step toward empowering Americans to take control over their personal information and sensitive data. The DELETE Act would put an end to the current unchecked data sale market and ensure that data brokers cannot profit off of the personal information of Americans at the expense of their privacy and security by giving consumers the right to delete their private information and stop data brokers from accessing or selling it. Importantly, it would directly address the national security concerns raised by consumer watchdogs and prevent the data of vulnerable people from falling into the hands of bad actors.
As consumers continue to navigate the digital age, the leadership of lawmakers like Congresswoman Lori Trahan is essential, and her work on privacy issues, including the introduction of the DELETE Act, represents real progress for Americans who deserve to have their sensitive data protected. It is imperative that other elected officials in Washington follow her lead.
Keith Sonia is a public affairs consultant with over a decade of experience in campaigns, government, and academia. He lives in Beverly and is the Chair of the Beverly Democratic City Committee.
