Consumer Privacy
The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
The Latest
-
Many States Regulate the Scanning of ID Barcodes; Why Don鈥檛 They Offer Similar Protections for Digital Driver鈥檚 Licenses?
-
Digital Driver鈥檚 Licenses Could Make 鈥淪urveillance Pricing鈥� Much Easier for Companies
-
鈥淪urveillance Pricing鈥� Hurts Consumers, Incentivizes More Corporate Spying on Them
-
ACLU Seeks Records on DOGE鈥檚 Unrestricted Access to Americans鈥� Data, Urges Congress to Step Up
Explore More
What's at Stake
The government security establishment is not the only threat to our privacy; most of the transactions that we engage in are with private companies. In recent decades, the private sector has learned that personal information is a valuable commodity, giving companies a strong incentive to collect as much data as they can about all of us. Indeed, we have seen the private sector engage in increasingly pervasive surveillance of individuals and their activities, transactions, and lifestyles. In the absence of regulatory restrictions, this trend will only intensify as the full fury and genius of capitalism applies itself to spying on all of us.
This spying threatens to create new opportunities for corporate manipulation and control of individuals, to accentuate the advantages and disadvantages experienced by different groups, and to generally shift power from individuals to powerful companies.
Corporate privacy invasions are often opaque or invisible to customers or poorly understood by them. In other cases, lack of choices leaves consumers with little alternative but to give up their privacy in exchange for valuable services. As a result, marketplace competition is typically not a sufficient force to protect consumers鈥� privacy. The ACLU works to promote carefully constructed statutory protections so that we can enjoy innovative new goods and services without giving up our privacy.
The ACLU of California has created a guide for businesses featuring advice on how to respect people鈥檚 privacy and free speech rights. The guide includes over 100 case studies showing how following the ACLU鈥檚 best practices can benefit not only users, but also companies鈥� profitability.
Visit the ACLU's guide,
The government security establishment is not the only threat to our privacy; most of the transactions that we engage in are with private companies. In recent decades, the private sector has learned that personal information is a valuable commodity, giving companies a strong incentive to collect as much data as they can about all of us. Indeed, we have seen the private sector engage in increasingly pervasive surveillance of individuals and their activities, transactions, and lifestyles. In the absence of regulatory restrictions, this trend will only intensify as the full fury and genius of capitalism applies itself to spying on all of us.
This spying threatens to create new opportunities for corporate manipulation and control of individuals, to accentuate the advantages and disadvantages experienced by different groups, and to generally shift power from individuals to powerful companies.
Corporate privacy invasions are often opaque or invisible to customers or poorly understood by them. In other cases, lack of choices leaves consumers with little alternative but to give up their privacy in exchange for valuable services. As a result, marketplace competition is typically not a sufficient force to protect consumers鈥� privacy. The ACLU works to promote carefully constructed statutory protections so that we can enjoy innovative new goods and services without giving up our privacy.
The ACLU of California has created a guide for businesses featuring advice on how to respect people鈥檚 privacy and free speech rights. The guide includes over 100 case studies showing how following the ACLU鈥檚 best practices can benefit not only users, but also companies鈥� profitability.
Visit the ACLU's guide,