Support a Comprehensive Consumer Privacy Law that Safeguards Civil Rights Online
View PDF of the letter here.
Support a Comprehensive Consumer Privacy Law that Safeguards Civil Rights Online
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader McCarthy, Majority Leader Schumer, and Minority Leader McConnell,
On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the 57 undersigned civil rights, civil liberties, and consumer protection organizations, we write to urge Congress to pass comprehensive consumer privacy legislation during this session that prohibits data-driven discrimination and ensures that everyone has the right to equal opportunity on the internet. As advocates, industry, and stakeholders on all sides of the debate have made clear, now is the time to take up this critical issue.
Privacy rights are civil rights. Protecting privacy can help ensure that people’s identities and characteristics cannot be used against them unfairly. Strong legislation can secure for everyone the “inviolability of privacy” that is “indispensable to preservation of freedom of association.”[1] Privacy legislation can empower communities of color and open doors for marginalized populations. It can also provide clarity to businesses and level the playing field for entrepreneurs.
There are many avenues to enacting comprehensive data protections. We believe that successful legislation would accomplish the following:
- Prohibit using personal data to discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics.
- Ensure that automated decision-making systems are tested for bias and other risks, especially in matters concerning housing, employment, education, credit, and public accommodations.
- Empower enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general and include a private right of action.
- Preserve state civil rights laws and other types of state laws that are important for the protection of consumers and marginalized communities.
- Require companies to minimize the data they collect and give clarity on permissible and impermissible data uses.
- Provide individuals the right to access, correct, and delete their personal data.
- Regulate the data broker industry.
- Create transparency mechanisms that are helpful to consumers and enable robust oversight, research, language accessibility, and accountability.
The time has come to enact a comprehensive consumer privacy law that safeguards civil rights online. We look forward to working with Congress on this essential task to protect everyone’s rights and create a more just and equitable society. Should you have any questions, please contact David Brody, managing attorney of the Digital Justice Initiative at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, at [email protected], or Anita Banerji, senior program director of media & tech at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, at [email protected].
Sincerely,
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Access Now
African American Ministers In Action
Alphabet Workers Union – CWA Local 1400
American Atheists
Arab American Institute
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Brennan Center for Justice
Center for American Progress
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Digital Democracy
Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law
Color Of Change
Common Cause
Common Sense Media
Communications Workers of America
Consumer Action
Consumer Federation of America
Demand Progress
Democracy Fund Voice
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
Equal Rights Advocates
Equality California
Fairplay
Fight for the Future
Free Press Action
Human Rights Watch
Impact Fund
Japanese American Citizens League
Media Alliance
Muslim Advocates
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF)
National Association of Consumer Advocates
National Association of Social Workers
National CAPACD- National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development
National Consumer Law Center
National Consumers League
National Fair Housing Alliance
National Urban League
National Women’s Law Center
New America’s Open Technology Institute
Oakland Privacy
Open MIC (Open Media and Information Companies Initiative)
Public Citizen
Public Justice
Public Knowledge
Ranking Digital Rights
Reproaction
Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Stop Online Violence Against Women Inc
The Greenlining Institute
United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry
Wikimedia Foundation
X-Lab
[1] NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449, 462 (1958).