Published: April 2019

Personal data has potential to fuel discrimination

26 civil society organizations sent a letter to Congress calling on legislators to ensure that any federal privacy legislation addresses the discriminatory impacts of commercial data practices and protects people of color, women, religious minorities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, persons with disabilities, persons living on low income, immigrants, and other vulnerable populations.

For too long, corporations have ignored the digital pollution that their commercial data practices generate; they must be held accountable for the negative externalities of their business models. The exploitation of personal information disproportionately harms marginalized communities. The coalition letter to Congress provides extensive documentation of the ways in which privacy abuses enable voter suppression, digital redlining, discriminatory policing, retail discrimination, digital inequity, amplification of white supremacy, identity theft, and the endangerment of personal safety.

Lead Organization

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Other Organizations

Access Now | Center for Digital Democracy | Center for Media Justice | Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law | Color of Change | Common Cause | Consumer Action | Consumer Federation of America | Demand Progress Education Fund | Demos | Free Press Action | Human Rights Campaign | Impact Fund | Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law | Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition | National Consumer Law Center, on behalf of its low-income clients | National Hispanic Media Coalition | National Urban League | New America's Open Technology Institute | Open MIC (Open Media and Information Companies Initiative) | Public Citizen | Public Justice Center | Public Knowledge | Southern Poverty Law Center | The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights | United Church of Christ, OC Inc.

More Information

For more information, please visit the Lawyer's Committee website.

Download PDF

Personal data has potential to fuel discrimination   (Letter_to_Congress_on_Civil_Rights_and_Privacy_4-19-19.pdf)