Did you know that there is no federal digital privacy law in the United States? Instead we have a patchwork of federal and state laws that cover things like medical privacy (HIPAA), student privacy (FERPA), or phone conversations, emails, texts, etc. (ECPA).
As a nation we don’t have a single law that ensures that your data is yours, and only yours. Only three states, California (CCPA), Colorado (ColoPA) and Virginia (VCDPA) have passed laws designed to provide strong protections and give consumers tools to control their data.
In most of the country, companies and other data-gathering organizations can collect information about you and use it in any way they want. There is no federal requirement that companies notify consumers if their data is stolen by cybercriminals. The April 10, 2022 episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver did a great job of covering the various ways data brokers exploit our information.
The United States desperately needs its own version of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that provides comprehensive data and privacy protections to EU citizens. Unfortunately, since American politicians rely on data purchased from brokers to target their campaign ads, there isn’t a lot of enthusiasm for a homegrown version of the GDPR in Washington.
If you think your information should be yours to control, contact your representatives in the House of Representatives and United States Senate and let them know.
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