1. United States
2. N.Y.
3. Letter

I am a New York constituent writing to request oversight and legislative action regarding recent developments in data privacy, civil liberties, and the government’s role in shaping platform-specific data practices. TikTok’s updated U.S. Privacy Policy explicitly states that the company may collect and process highly sensitive personal information, including precise location data, immigration or citizenship status, health information, sexual orientation or gender identity, financial information, and identity verification documents such as driver’s license numbers. These practices are now administered through TikTok U.S. Data Security (USDS), a U.S.-based joint venture established in response to federal government pressure and regulatory threats. While TikTok is a private company, this situation raises broader concerns that extend beyond any single platform. When government pressure induces a company to restructure its operations and normalize expanded collection of sensitive personal data, it risks creating outcomes that implicate constitutional privacy norms, civil liberties, and consumer protection principles—without clear statutory guardrails, uniform standards, or meaningful user consent. At present, the United States lacks comprehensive, technology-neutral federal privacy legislation. As a result, privacy outcomes are being shaped through ad hoc negotiations, selective enforcement, and platform-specific pressure rather than through transparent, democratically enacted rules that apply equally to all digital services. This approach creates several problems: • It normalizes broad collection of sensitive personal data without clear necessity or proportionality standards. • It undermines meaningful consent by conditioning participation in modern digital life on acceptance of expansive data practices. • It creates uneven treatment among platforms, raising due process and fairness concerns. • It places consumers’ civil liberties at risk without clear accountability or oversight mechanisms. I am urging you to: • Support comprehensive federal privacy legislation that applies uniformly to all platforms. • Exercise oversight over government actions that pressure private companies into expanded data collection regimes. • Ensure that privacy, free expression, and due process protections are not eroded through indirect or informal regulatory mechanisms. I would appreciate knowing your position on these issues and what steps you are taking to protect the privacy and civil liberties of New York residents in the digital environment. Thank you for your time and public service.