If the government is actually “Of, by, and for the people”, then it should be working for the American people, right? I would say so. After all, that’s pretty much in its job description. It ought to be doing our bidding, not once in a while, not here and there, but everywhere, always and without exception. Government is for our protection so if it makes compromises at the expense of our protection and against our own interests, that is unacceptable, dangerous, and reeks of corruption.

The Privacy Problem

Privacy, which is a fundamental human right, is being abused right now by countless corporations, specifically marketing and online ad companies. Our representatives, so far, have not done enough to protect us. That needs to change. These “big ad” companies are allowed to secretly hide themselves in software, web pages, personal cameras, personal microphones, search engines, smart appliances, and probably much more. It turns out that these products and services are just a facade, made to look like one particular thing when in actuality they are trojan horses used to sneak spyware through the private walls of our homes and follow us around as we travel. These companies have free reign to gather anything they can hear through our microphones or see through our cameras and then sell it to anyone willing to pay for it and use it in any way they see fit.

The way things are now, I cannot effectively protect myself from these corporations because they have eyes and ears hidden everywhere. They can see me and I can’t see them.

They target us with alarming precision and detail, making it clear that the advertisers know exactly who we are to a large degree, but we don’t know how they know.

Furthermore, we don’t know who they are. “They” could be anyone from anywhere and we have no way to find out. Our information is collected secretly and traded as a commodity whether we like it or not. I have a right to know who is scarfing up my information, interests, and behaviors and how and when it is being used so that I can decide whether I agree to continue sharing with them or not.

As it sits now, we have far too many possible spying sources for anyone to unravel the knot to regain their privacy. I have no way to know who is doing what with my information. If I see an ad for something very specific to me, how would I know where it came from? It could be from a vast array of places, such as:

a website I visited
my email provider
someone’s Alexa
my Android phone listening to me
someone else’s phone listening to me while it was connected to my router
my TV
my Roku
a search term I used
even the DMV selling my information to an advertising company

Due to the pervasiveness of it all, in today’s environment, the flippant response to “just stop doing business with the companies who use tracking” is actually absurd. We have no way to know which companies and services to refrain from using because they hide their surveillance mechanisms from us. Their eyes and ears are virtually omnipresent and to escape them would require a full withdrawal from modern society.

It is unreasonable to tell anyone that in order to participate normally in society they must sign away any of their God-given and constitutionally guaranteed rights. Everyone in society must be able to function in the normal part of society without having their rights constantly violated in the background with hidden microphones, cameras, and advanced computing algorithms crunching their behaviors to create about them a psychological profile for advertising and propaganda purposes. While this point is bad enough on its own, it’s even more insulting when we’re talking about our own microphones and our own cameras in devices that we own ourselves, which are used to gather our data to send to strangers on the internet. Most people don’t even realize it’s happening, or have simply forgotten it’s there.

The victims of this spying (pretty much everybody), after being lured in with free and paid products, often are oblivious to the fact that these marketing companies are vacuuming up tons of data points on them which are then used by those corporations for advertising and propaganda purposes and/or sold for profit. These companies then evade responsibility with a simple sentence buried in the terms and conditions saying “we may collect data about you and if you don’t agree then discontinue using this service”. Many people would never realize that warning exists, or if they did they wouldn’t assume the extent to which it can go.

This has been occurring for decades at an increasing rate because it is so easy and profitable. Full surveillance, something that seemed so appalling at first is now just tolerated. We have been nudged, gradually, into a state of learned helplessness. It seems unstoppable so we have chosen to simply ignore it. Society now has just learned to live with this and accepts it as a fact of life.

This situation is no longer acceptable. We need to wake up and fight for our privacy. It’s time for law makers to do their jobs by stepping in to change this and protect the people; to give back to the people control of their own privacy and information.

The Solution

There are very few times you’ll hear me utter the words “we need more regulations” and that’s because the government is already too big and should be pruned like the dangerous weed that it is. With that said, it does have a function and some actual reasons to exist. This is one of them.

The solution to this problem is to regulate the corporations who are doing the spying, thereby protecting the American People, without regulating the people themselves. The people are to remain free to function freely while their rights are protected from corporate spying. This doesn’t stop any company from doing anything. It simply requires companies to do it out in the open with full disclosure to those affected by their actions.

The New Regulations We Need

Regulations need to be implemented that would require all marketing and advertising companies to open the black boxes they are so comfortable hiding in. That could be done by some simple requirements of disclosing the tracking at three specific points:

At the collection point, when data is being collected
At the usage point, when the personalized ad is shown, or email is delivered to the user
At the request of any person requesting information on themselves

We should no longer allow these companies to operate in secret. If any company is watching or listening to me and keeping records on me, and using that data for their business, then they must disclose that specifically at the point of collection, and at the point of use, and on demand by anyone affected.

When Collecting Data

There must be full disclosure at the point of capture. This includes disclosure that data is being collected, for what purpose, and with whom it will be shared. Vaguely disclosing, such as “we may collect data for business purposes”, is insufficient. Likewise, a list of possible ways they might collect is insufficient. And disclosures buried in terms and conditions is unacceptable. They must provide a notice to the user that it is happening in real time.

If it is an app where users can log in or have a persistent identity, users should have the ability to change their preferences to suppress these notifications if they so choose, but the notifications should be turned ON by default.

Examples of acceptable disclosure at the point of collection:

Your browser’s fingerprint is being used as an identifier to connect your interest in the topics on this webpage to your identity for advertising purposes.

Your IP address is being used as an identity and will be associated with the topics on this webpage for advertising purposes.

Personally identifying information will be associated with the topics on this webpage to be shared with advertising companies for targeted ads.

Your IP address is being used as an identity and will be associated with the topics on this webpage for political ads and curated news.

etc.

This notifies the user:

The identifier being captured
The information that will be linked to it
What the purpose is for capturing that data

When Using the Data

Any targeted individual must be able to know exactly and unambiguously when and where their information was collected at the point of use. I don’t mean some vague disclosure such as “your information may have been obtained from <multiple sources listed>“. I’m talking about true and full disclosure specific enough for me to take an action to put a stop to it, if I so choose.

When using collected data then it must show a warning statement on the ad itself, or a reasonably sized URL or link to that warning statement.

The warning statement should be in this general format:

Targeted information for this ad was obtained from <company name> on <date> through <device and means by which the data was obtained>.

OR (if marketing email)

Your email address was provided to <company name> on <date> from our website.

Examples of acceptable disclosure at the point of use:

Targeted information for this ad was obtained from Google on 2024-08-02 from an Android phone with device ID xxxxxxxxx based on audio data captured through the microphone.

Targeted information for this ad was obtained from Google on 2024-08-02 from an Android phone with device ID xxxxxxxxx from app “Candy Crush” based on audio data captured through the microphone.

Your email address was provided to MARKETING CENTRAL INC on 2024-08-02 from your visit to the website www.marketingcentralinc.com.

OR a link directing the user to that information:

Click this link to learn how this ad was personalized to you. https://legalizedspyingdisclosure.com/OOicU812

Notices on emails can easily be provided along with the unsubscribe link that is now required by FTC law.

National Registry of Data Collectors

Finally, there should be a registry of data collectors requiring any data collection company to register as such and operate under the government’s guidelines. This ensures no company is flying under the radar. It also centralizes the companies for the accessibility of all Americans, putting them within our reach so we can communicate with the registered data collectors. Any citizen can then request all of their data points from these companies with a simple request making it possible for anyone to uncover where they have been exposed and to whom they were exposed.

Finally

While this sounds like a big undertaking, I would suggest that it isn’t as big as it might sound. These companies already collect these details. They keep metrics on their data collection as a part of their business. What is suggested here is simply revealing what they probably already have records of and including it during the use of their data.

If these ideas are implemented, it will put the power back into the hands of the American people, allowing them to protect themselves and choose when they want to share their data and with whom they want to share it.

The Law We Need Now – The Right To Know and Duty To Disclose