Dear Friend,

Muslim Pro is a simple app that countless Muslims downloaded to help them remember prayer times. So why did its users’ data end up in the hands of the U.S. military? Because there is very little privacy and transparency around your online data. 

Our online activities—what we read, buy and watch; our religion and level of devotion; where we work and study and whom we associate with—are routinely collected and analyzed by numerous companies. And not solely the social media companies or the first-party apps or websites we interact with but often opaque third-party “data brokers” as well. These companies are profiting off our data by amassing it from apps and websites, then selling it to businesses, law enforcement and state agencies. 

Much of our data is collected and sold without our knowledge. Moreover, we’re increasingly being asked to hand over permission to our data before we can access much-needed services. Going about our essential daily activities, from buying groceries to applying for jobs, might entail giving up our data. 

We all know the lengthy permission forms we’re asked to check off when we use apps—but these forms exploit an asymmetry of knowledge and time between the company and the customer. We may be left with the wrong impression that our data will not be used or shared without our consent. In reality, employers are using data to make firing and promotion decisions, data is being used to sell us products and data is being sold to government agencies. 

There is something we can all do right now to help end the misuse of our data and push for data privacy and transparency. 

At this moment, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is considering new protections for how our data is collected, analyzed and sold. There is currently no comprehensive federal law on data privacy and the FTC’s forthcoming rule might be the first step toward protecting our online activity. 

The FTC is currently accepting public comments on a data privacy rule. If we do not speak up and demand that the agency push for strong rules on data privacy and transparency, the agency will end up hearing only from the corporate lobbyists representing those profiting off our data. 

Please join me in submitting a comment to the FTC today and ask your family and friends to join as well. 

Please visit FTCcomments.com where you can fill in your name (or stay anonymous) and add your story. Click and Take Action! 

The most important part is speaking from your personal experiences and concerns. If you’re a Muslim who used Muslim Pro, or has anxiety about being on social media, please tell the FTC why data privacy is important to you and why simply using an app—which is often essential to daily life—should not be an invitation for companies and data brokers to monitor and sell your data. 

Please be aware that comments will be part of the FTC’s public record although your email address will not be made public. 

The public comment period will close on November 21 so please do not delay in submitting your comment and asking your friends and family to do it too. 

The FTC needs to hear from all of us—and the more comments they receive from the public, the more likely they will take action on commercial surveillance.

As noted, this is only the first step toward data protection. The FTC’s rule will not regulate government data surveillance, but the stricter regulation of commercial surveillance will impact government data collection by cutting it off at the source. 

Even though it is private companies who are amassing our data, government agencies know they can purchase the data. And the data brokers know the kind of biases these agencies hold and feed them data tailored to their prejudices. Data sold to law enforcement and the U.S. government is leading to discrimination and the surveillance of communities, especially Muslims and other people of color. 

The Brennan Center reported on the social media monitoring company Voyager Labs offering its services to the Los Angeles Police Department: surveilling social media posts to color-code individuals on a threat scale. Voyager Labs proposed to collect data on people’s posts and network of friends and targeted posts that mentioned the Muslim religion and Arab heritage. This type of data collection and discriminatory labeling of people’s identities are data discrimination. 

Already, ICE has data on three out of four Americans, and agencies from local police departments to the U.S. military and Treasury Department have accessed consumer data. 

Given the cozy relationship between private data and the state, the FTC’s upcoming rule is an opportunity to stem the flow of information that the government is using to target communities, especially Muslims and other people of color.

Our communities are already under so much surveillance—now we can push back. 

But it will not be easy. There is a lot of money in selling our data—literally billions of dollars—and so companies have huge incentives to keep on collecting and selling it. They will fight tooth and nail to push back against any rules that hinder their efforts to profit off our personal information. 

We cannot allow them to continue to put profit over privacy and community safety. 

The FTC is a public agency and its mandate is to protect the public from unfair and deceptive business practices. We are pleased to add that the FTC’s current chairperson is Lina Khan, the first Muslim and youngest person to ever helm the agency. Khan is a trusted advocate for consumer rights. 

So, once again, I’m calling on you to speak out against commercial surveilling and data discrimination and fight for transparency and privacy rights. 

If we do not speak for ourselves, who will?

In solidarity, 

Sumayyah Waheed

Senior Policy Counsel, Muslim Advocates

P.O. Box 34440
Washington, DC 20043 United States   

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