1. United States
2. Ind.
3. Letter

I am writing to demand comprehensive federal data privacy reform that ends commercial surveillance and requires opt-in consent by default. Americans now live inside an unregulated data-broker economy where our locations, purchases, vehicles, faces, associations, and inferred traits are collected and sold without meaningful consent. This data is used to set prices, raise insurance premiums, deny coverage, determine credit and employment eligibility, and fuel surveillance by both corporations and government agencies. Current privacy laws rely on opt-out mechanisms that are unrealistic and ineffective. California’s DELETE Act and DROP platform exist only because individual self-defense against hundreds of data brokers is impossible. These tools operate after harm has already occurred. The expansion of facial recognition, license-plate tracking, and biometric databases has created persistent identity graphs that people cannot escape. These systems have already resulted in documented misuse by law enforcement, including stalking, inappropriate searches, abortion-related investigations, and wrongful arrests caused by facial recognition errors. Artificial intelligence now automates profiling and decision-making at scale, while accountability disappears. When harm occurs, companies and agencies deflect responsibility by blaming “the algorithm.” Consumers receive no financial benefit from this system. We are not paid for our data. We are priced, scored, and surveilled. I urge you to support federal legislation that includes: • Opt-in consent as the default for data collection and sharing • Strict limits on the sale of biometric and location data • Accountability and appeal rights for automated decision systems • Warrant requirements for government acquisition of commercial surveillance data • Real enforcement and a private right of action Privacy is not nostalgia. It is economic fairness, civil liberty, and democratic stability. Please act accordingly.