Privacy matters

In the last year we’ve seen firsthand the dangers of sharing and using people’s data without their consent. The Department of Homeland Security has used data from the IRS and Center on Medicaid Services to locate and detain people in many communities. This has had a chilling effect on people accessing services they are entitled to, like medical care, childcare and food assistance.

In 2023 a poll by the Pew Research Center found that 67 percent of Americans had little knowledge about what companies do with the data they collect about them. While people share some information willingly on social media, data are also collected on search engines and websites, by automobiles and doorbells, and at the doctor’s office. The use of the data can lead to real economic harm—one example is surveillance-pricing, where companies use consumer data to set different costs for buyers.

With so much uncertainty and the lack of transparency around these practices, we need a systemic response protecting the collection and sharing of private data. The magnitude and pace of technological change have outstripped users’ abilities to stop the collection of their data, verify its accuracy, or maintain their privacy. None of these are currently protected under a comprehensive federal data protection law, but Vermont lawmakers are currently considering a consumer data protection bill, S.71. The version House Commerce and Economic Development is considering right now would create important safeguards for Vermonters, specifically:

• limiting data collection to what is “reasonably necessary,”
• limiting and providing transparency on the sale of personal data,
• preventing the sale of sensitive data,
• and monitoring disparate impacts on consumers.

S.71 creates important foundations to protect Vermonters’ economic security and to rebuild consumer confidence in our economy. It also provides us with a model to apply to publicly collected data, so we can prevent misuse by both private companies and the government.