Stop Trying to Influence How I think
Find this hard to believe?
Grassroots Analytics, a data brokerage company, received more than $2.1 million from election campaigns in 2020. What for you ask? Well, the Democratic Party campaigns bought personal data to more effectively profile potential voters like you and this helped ensure their campaign ads would be more likely to influence your decision-making.
And they’re just getting started. In July 2022, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee alone paid Grassroots Analytics $1 million ahead of the midterm elections.
[...] what should really concern us is how eager our elected officials and political parties are to utilize these tools to keep themselves in power.
Where are they getting this data from?
Data brokers are scraping your data through web browser cookies, public records, social media sites, and free mobile apps – just to name a few.
Using this data, political and corporate organizations can target people’s interests and vulnerabilities using online ads to influence how you vote, where you shop, and what you buy.
The fact that prominent companies like Google and Meta (Facebook) have built their businesses around systematically manipulating people based on their vulnerabilities or biases is troubling enough, but what should really concern us is how eager our elected officials and political parties are to utilize these tools to keep themselves in power.
We feel strongly that if we don’t take action to protect our civil liberties, including our right to privacy, this will ultimately lead to the corruption of our democracy and further weaken our economy.
Do you agree that organizations shouldn’t be able to capture and sell your data without your consent?
If so, sign this petition to unite with others who demand stronger laws to protect our privacy and safeguard our democracy.
We citizens demand that:
- The United States should have a singular comprehensive privacy law protecting all types of data.
- The harvesting and selling of your data by data brokers without your consent should be a criminal offense.
- Companies should ask for your formal consent before sharing or selling your data to third parties.
- You should have the right to see what data various entities have collected on you and to request any data collected from you be deleted.
- You should be notified if your data is breached or exposed to any unauthorized parties.
- Companies should only collect data needed in order to provide you with the service you’re using.
- Companies shouldn’t discriminate against people who exercise their privacy rights.