New America

New America’s Open Technology Institute filed reply comments with the Federal Communications Commission urging it to reject its proposal to impose restrictions on funding for programs that help low-income consumers, schools and libraries, health care providers, and rural telecommunications providers. OTI submitted the reply comments to illustrate the broad range of initial comments that, similar to OTI's initial comments, oppose the FCC’s plan to implement a spending cap for all four Universal Service Fund (USF) programs.

For twenty years, the US’ approach to protecting privacy has relied primarily on notice and consent. As US policymakers work to develop legislation to protect users’ privacy, however, it is time to move away from that regime. Users want more control over the data they provide companies, and granting users certain rights over their data can facilitate increased control.

In our increasingly digitized world, it is critical to protect individuals’ privacy. As policymakers consider passing meaningful privacy legislation, civil rights protections are a critical but mostly overlooked component. To have effective privacy legislation, we must ensure that companies’ data practices do not violate individuals’ civil rights—especially when it comes to marginalized communities.

Protecting privacy is especially important for marginalized communities, who are disproportionately harmed by the exploitation of personal information enabled by inadequate privacy protections.