Stop government from buying - and selling - your personal data

The call is coming from inside the house

Photo by Luke Southern on Unsplash

Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing to examine how easily government can access our personal data.

It’s great to not let the government - especially the federal government - buy its way around the 4th Amendment.

But what if we also don’t let the data be sold by government agencies in the first place? See, state agencies like DMVs and law enforcement agencies, tax county assessors, and elections boards, private and public utilities, and even credit bureaus sell our data to databrokers. And proposed privacy legislation continues to exempt "Federal, State, Tribal, territorial, or local government" from consumer protections.

That means if you get a parking ticket, your traffic court record - including your name, home address, date of birth, and make, model and license plate of your car - could be sold to dozens of data brokers who combine it and resell it to others. Want to vote in the next election? Have heat and water in your home? Then your state will sell your data, and you don’t get to consent or opt-out.

While data brokers themselves, along with Congress, and even some hapless cybersecurity “experts” would like you to believe that you are the biggest contributor of your PII to data brokers, don’t believe the lie. Your contributions to blogs and social media aren’t what will put you at the greatest risk; people may not like it and may go after you online, but only if your personal data is easily accessible can an outraged internet user connect your online persona to your offline life.

State and local government agencies will justify the sale of your data without your consent as necessary to pay for infrastructure and services. But they financed these long before there was a reseller market for your data. Perhaps they can find a way, again, to pay for their obligations to us with our tax money instead of making extra cash on this side hustle, and providing the very means for circumventing a constitutional right, all the while enriching a handful of unscrupulous businesses.