With over 10 years of experience working in the tech industry with companies ranging between legacy corporations and small start-ups, I have a wealth of knowledge of information technology that many both running and currently serving in Congress may not have. I've made consumer advocacy on these issues a cornerstone of my campaign.
Better Privacy Policy Notices
Signing for a service shouldn't entitle them to collecting information without limits. Personal devices have evolved in the last 20 years from simply being a family computer to mobile electronic devices that we carry around with us 24/7. No one in this day and age would be caught without their smartphone, and the wellspring of data it provides is valuable to everyone from corporations to thieves.
If elected, I would push for and sponsor any legislation that would make sure your privacy is protected.
Stop ISP's from Selling Your Personal Data
In October of 2017, the U.S. Congress voted to end privacy protection for consumers that allows ISP's to sell your personal data without your consent. Imagine your ISP, which already knows what websites you visit, selling that information to other outlets exposing your browsing habits to the highest bidder.
I will sign onto any legislation that brings these protections back and ensure you and your personal data is protected.
No More Confusing User Agreements
When signing up for a Facebook or Twitter, no one should be subjected to a 10-page long agreement. The vast majority of Americans do not read the long agreements that they have agreed to that may do everything from allowing a corporation to sell their information even down to some, even as a joke, buying your immortal soul.
In the last 20 years as the internet has grown, so have privacy notices and the amount of information we are willing to give away. Growing up I was taught not to give your credit card information online. Now we have digital wallets. Yet in the age of social media and providing corporations with copious amounts of data rarely do we read the service agreements.
If elected, I will take efforts to craft legislation that will ensure that will limit the length of these agreements for users and put them into plain English and ensure you know what you're signing up for.
Companies not allowed to sell private data without consent
One massive side-effect of these massive user agreements and companies having your data is the fact that you may be completely unaware that they are able to sell your data. There are even car companies who are now able to sell your private driving data since you agreed to it, largely without realizing it.
Between the legislation and regulations where I call for shorter and easier to understand user agreements and limiting how long companies can hold your private voice data, I am calling for legislation to ensure that anything related to a company selling your private data must be done as a separate agreement. This makes it crystal clear that you are making a transactional agreement between yourself and another company.
Requirements to alert you of Data Breaches
In 2017 it was revealed that Equifax, one of the largest credit reporting companies in America and one of our biggest data miners, had known about a hack of their servers for months and that the personal records of over 150,000,000 Americans were compromised. Their penalty for the massive breach of both public trust and information was a slap on the wrist compared to the massive problems inflicted on what amounts to half of the U.S. population!
Data breaches must be reported within 48 hours of being discovered to the FBI and, once fixed, within 24 hours to customers who are affected by the breach. Companies with sensitive data (Social Security numbers, credit card numbers) will be fined up to $100 per record stolen. Any company that fails to report a known breach within that time frame will automatically have that fine increased up to $200 per record. It is completely unacceptable that companies feel that they must hide these breaches to the American people and we must impose harsh fines to make sure that they do everything possible to protect us.
How long companies may hold your private data
With the advent of personal assistant devices such as Amazon's Alexa and Google Home we have allowed massive corporations into our homes to listen to our private conversations and control our home. These are amazing innovations, but we must act now to make sure we protect our privacy.
That is why I am support legislation that will make sure they can only withhold voice recordings only for up to a week and that all information collected using voice methods can not be sold.
Net Neutrality
Net Neutrality is the principle that all data on the internet should be treated the same regardless of the source. That means and ISP can't limit your access to content your favorite pet videos or something criticising them. This makes ISP's a "Common carrier" similar to a water line.
The biggest problem is the perception that this also bars ISP's from allowing certain providers access to "fast lanes". Even under the old Net Neutrality laws it was legal for an ISP to choose one service for another for one reason or another. The only punishment came when they chose to slow down other content.
I support Net Neutrality and I would also call for legislation to ensure that internet service providers can not both charge more to access certain content nor allow them speed up certain content as they prefer.
Code Injections from ISP's
Barring ISP's from being legally allowed to change your browsing experience using coding. For example: You browse a music website and instead of seeing ads for the advertisers the site has agreed to do business with your ISP replaces the ad with their own.
Everyone fears that their ISP spying on them or selling their data. But no one would suspect that they also inject their own code onto your personal device for profit. ISP's are currently able to inject their own code between the content you're trying to get to and you and put their own prefered ads in place of the ones for the website you're visiting. This practice enriches large ISP's and their advertising partners and businesses that they may own and takes money away from small businesses.
I will craft legislation that will impose fines on any ISP that injects code into your browser to fundamentally change your access to a free and open internet.
Making Cryptojacking a Felony
Cryptojacking is the process using your computer in order to mine cryptocurrency, digital currency that can amount to big bucks. In essence, hackers are using your computer to make money. The way they're doing this is constantly evolving, but the core of all of this is injecting code without your permission in order to make money.
I will create legislation to make the act of cryptojacking itself a felony offense, and to help prevent additional such attacks I'll move to ensure that any attempt to use your computer without proper permission from you to make money is barred. Working with the best minds in the tech industry, we can craft legislation that will protect consumers, companies, and banks.