Nowadays, private companies are trailing as many people’s movements possible online, trading that data to other companies who sequentially share it with the government and police force. The equipment they employ to do this trailing is progressing quickly and has grown to be extremely refined, and people have little prospect of keeping up with what is happening once they surf, let alone taking the difficult steps required to avoid this spying.

As stewards of digital lives, companies are the primary line of defense once it comes to maintaining personal information personal. Companies ought to:

- Inform you when the administration is requesting for your information in order that you can guard yourself;

- Reveal how frequently they divide information with the administration;

- Stand up for client privacy in Congress and in the courts. Most immediately, companies ought to advocate for a revise to the obsolete Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) which was approved in 1986, prior to the Internet as you recognize it these days even existed.

Americans ought to not need to decide between novel technology and maintaining their individual information personal. Safeguards for online privacy are necessary and crucial, and the government must assist draw boundaries to make sure that Americans’ confidentiality stays integral in the Digital Age.

Additional Resources

Demand Your dotRights (feature): The more you accomplish online, the more information you leave behind. The ACLU deems it is time to pass novel privacy laws. You ought not to have to decide between using novel technology and maintaining control of your confidential information.

TAKE ACTION: Modernize Our Privacy Law! (2010 action): These days, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), which ought to protect electronic communications records (like your chat logs or email) and the details you share with businesses, is in severe need of a revision. The government ought to have to see a judge and obtain a warrant that states it has credible cause to deem you have committed an offense prior to reading your email, surfing through your social networking account, or trailing your location.

TAKE ACTION: Hey! Do You Use The Internet? (2011 action): The things you do and declare online leave behind ever-rising tracks of private information. With each click, you entrust your emails, conversations, photos, location details and a lot more to companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo. However what ensues when the government requests these companies to surrender their clients’ private information? As stewards of digital lives, companies are the primary line of defense once it comes to maintaining personal information personal.

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