Friend,

Have you logged into Facebook recently and noticed more misleading political content in your feed than usual — rather than content from your friends and family? Or maybe you’ve seen an increase in spam emails in your inbox from brands you’ve never interacted with.

Digital platforms and services that sell our personal data to the highest bidder leave us with an impossible choice: Accept that Big Tech owns our entire digital footprint and deal with an onslaught of hateful, misleading and unwanted content — or ghost the internet entirely. 👻

It doesn’t have to be this way. So we’re ramping up our #HandsOffMyData campaign again this fall to demand strong and meaningful federal reforms to put control of our data back in our hands.

Free Press Action relies on supporters like you to fuel our fight for the privacy protections we all deserve. We have to ask: Will you make your very first donation of $5 or any amount to Free Press Action today? We’re hoping to reach 350 donations by the end of the month to sustain our #HandsOffMyData work in the weeks and months ahead.

If you thought you were alone in dealing with this barrage of hateful, deceitful and spammy content, think again.

We’ve been collecting stories from people like you to understand the impact and harms of online disinformation, misinformation, fraud, scams and hateful content that compromise our privacy and hurt our communities. We hope these stories will help push Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to adopt meaningful reforms. We need these decision-makers to use their power to protect people online and restrict the data that companies can gather about us.

Here are just two excerpts from these powerful stories:

“I am plagued daily with several emails from companies I know nothing about & I wish it would stop- I never make it through to the important emails I should be reading- there are hundreds/day. I have been scammed online of course, trying to buy something I couldn't find anywhere else- they had me, got $200 in bitcoin & vanished. Doubt that will happen to me again, but I'm sure it happens every day to people everywhere.” —Susan S., California

“Spambots are deluging my email inbox. The usual spam is a bogus invoice for a purchase that I supposedly made. More sinister are the emails that supposedly came from Microsoft. These inform me that a problem with my account, or my storage space, or some other technical issue means that I'll be disconnected shortly.” —Phillip R., Oregon

We need strong federal reforms so we can control our own data. That's why Free Press Action and thousands of our supporters are standing together to tell private companies and government agencies to keep their hands off our data.

That’s where you come in: Make your very first donation of $5 or any amount to Free Press Action today. Grassroots donors make this work possible, and hitting our goal of 350 gifts this month will go a long way toward sustaining this fight.

Thank you for pitching in,

All of us at Free Press Action
freepress.net

P.S. Simply put, we’re at risk when corporations and government agencies violate our privacy. Help Free Press Action fight for the data-privacy protections we deserve with a donation today.