Friend—

We have good news: Earlier this week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to send the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) to the full House of Representatives. The committee passed the bill by a huge bipartisan margin, clearing the way for potential companion legislation in the Senate.

Should the ADPPA pass the full House and Senate, it will provide meaningful protections for people’s data-privacy rights. Among other safeguards, the ADPPA would prohibit online platforms and other entities from collecting, processing and sharing people’s data in ways that discriminate “on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, or disability.”¹ We will do everything in our power to make sure this bill gets signed into law.

Since launching our #HandsOffMyData campaign, Free Press Action has been able to raise the resources we need to expand our work protecting digital privacy rights. And since a generous group of donors is matching all donations, we are now in a position of strength to push back — hard — against the tech companies, law-enforcement agencies and elected leaders trying to profit from, exploit or eliminate your digital privacy rights.

Thanks to the strength of our fundraising and the outpouring of support for this campaign, we’re already hard at work holding social-media companies accountable and supporting good legislation like the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act.

As part of the #HandsOffMyData campaign, Free Press Action is working to:

• ➔ Pass data-privacy protections — like the ADPPA — in Congress
• ➔ Push social-media companies to protect our data
• ➔ Pass the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (which just had a hearing this past week!)
• ➔ Speak out for data-privacy solutions that work for everyone

You can support this work with a donation today. Our generous donors are still matching all donations to the #HandsOffMyData campaign — so donate now while your gift will be doubled!

As we’ve seen time and again — attacks on our civil rights in the “real world” are also attacks on our digital civil rights. Until we strengthen digital privacy rights, our location data, search histories, app data, messages and more will be used to surveil, harass and even criminalize people. We need to act quickly to protect our digital rights and other civil rights.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress of this campaign in the months to come. And I’m so glad we have your support for the work ahead.

In solidarity,

Jessica and the rest of the Free Press Action team
freepress.net

P.S. It’s not too late to have your donation matched: Donate now to the #HandsOffMyData campaign and your donation will go TWICE as far as we work to protect our digital privacy rights.

1. “Free Press Action Cheers House Committee Passage of Bipartisan Privacy Bill,” July 20, 2022