Conclusion

No legislation can truly be comprehensive or effective at protecting privacy unless it addresses civil rights. Problematic data practices have severe implications for employment discrimination, housing discrimination, increased surveillance, socioeconomic inequities, and personal safety. They are particularly damaging for marginalized communities, with both public and private organizations using data to discriminate based on race, gender and sexual identity, citizenship status, ethnic and religious affiliations, socioeconomic status, health, and disability. Some of this can be observed in the use of technology and data analytics techniques by law enforcement to surveil and target people believed to be higher security risks, which are often racially biased and rest on existing prejudices about certain communities.

There are a variety of avenues for change, discussed above, that can help prevent these harmful civil rights violations arising from problematic data practices. Federal agencies should enforce civil rights and privacy laws. Congress must ensure that privacy laws include strong civil rights protections and preserve the ability of states to play a vital role in protecting civil rights and consumer privacy. All of these avenues for change, however, must center civil rights perspectives.