On February 13, 2019, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and 42 Leadership Conference organizations sent a letter to Congress asking lawmakers to protect civil rights, equity, and equal opportunity in the digital ecosystem. As Congress moves closer to enacting privacy legislation, the undersigned organizations emphasize the importance for lawmakers to investigate ongoing data privacy abuses that harm marginalized communities.
The letter urges Congress to develop transparency regulations that hold platforms accountable, requiring them to show how personal information is collected and used. Specifically, platforms should be transparent about how personal data is used in voter suppression models, discriminatory housing and employment advertising, and exploitative notice-and-choice practices. And because of the increasing reliance on automated decision making, companies should also be required to implement safeguards against discriminatory uses and disparate impacts of data.
The letter specifies that any new privacy legislation should:
- Stop high-tech profiling;
- Ensure fairness in automated decisions;
- Preserve constitutional principles;
- Enhance individual control of personal information; and
- Protect people from inaccurate data.
Signatories include:
- Access Humboldt
- Access Now
- ACLU
- Action Center on Race and Equity (ACRE)
- Algorithmic Justice League
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC
- Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood
- Center for Democracy & Technology
- Center for Digital Democracy
- Center for Media Justice
- Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law
- Color Of Change
- Common Cause
- Common Sense Media
- Consumer Action
- Consumer Federation of America
- Consumer Watchdog
- Electronic Privacy Information Center
- Ella Baker Center for Human Rights Fight for the Future
- Free Press Action
- Human Rights Campaign
- Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- Media Alliance
- Media Mobilizing Project
- NAACP
- National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low income clients)
- National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC)
- National Organization for Women (NOW)
- Foundation National Urban League
- New America Public Interest Technology
- New America's Open Technology Institute
- Open MIC (Open Media and Information Companies Initiative)
- Organization United for Respect Partnership for Working Families
- Public Citizen
- Public Knowledge
- Ranking Digital Rights
- Stop Online Violence Against Women
- The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- UnidosUS
- United Church of Christ, OC Inc.
- Upturn
Click here to review the letter.
