It’s not government Americans don’t trust with their data; it’s the opposite political party
Throughout history, governments have exploited or collected data on their citizens—from benign data, like salary information and census records, to creepy data, like biometric records for law enforcement activities. With abortion rights under attack in the U.S., privacy experts are warning about the potential for the government to collect and use cell phone data to target and prosecute pregnant people and those seeking abortion.
To protect our privacy we need to focus on the laws and programs that enable data collection on Americans. These laws and programs stay constant even as administrations shift. This is because a constellation of government agencies, courts and laws together govern how we are surveilled.
Under a Republican administration in 2020, self-reported Republicans were 9 perentage points more likely than Democrats to be okay with the government collecting data on them to prevent terrorism. At that time, Republicans were also more accepting of DNA-testing companies sharing their customers’ genetic data with law enforcement to aid in solving crimes, likely because Republicans view the police as protectors, particularly when their party is in power.
Understanding what’s happening to our personal data and how to regain control of it is hard. When faced with a hard problem, we use mental shortcuts called heuristics to help us make decisions without fully understanding everything about the problem we’re facing. When it comes to government surveillance, we’re relying on political trust—trust of our political party—instead of trying to understand what’s actually happening with our data.
The U.S. government is notoriously opaque about what personal data it collects and what it does with the data. When Edward Snowden exposed extensive phone and Internet surveillance on millions of Americans by the U.S. intelligence community in 2013, there was outrage. But Republicans were more concerned than Democrats, likely another result of political trust, since these revelations happened when former President Obama was in office and Democrats held a Senate majority.
Technology companies vacuum up customer data and use such data to tailor their products, services and, of course, advertisements. Facebook, Google and Amazon collect your browsing history, location, financial information and birthday to make it more likely that you click on their ads. Despite today’s politically polarized atmosphere, a majority of Americans agree that Congress should pass a federal privacy law as soon as possible to protect consumer data from tech companies.
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