There are countless scenarios to illustrate why we need this.

I often think about my two boys who love to watch videos on the internet and share their favorites with friends, like clips from their favorite shows or cute animal videos. Kids across the country commonly use platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Tik Tok. These companies can monitor their activity, see what types of content they choose to watch and which pages they choose to visit. But we don’t know what these companies are doing with that information. Are they allowed to share my teenage son Theo’s data from his Instagram page with advertisers? What are the limits on how and why they collect his information? And if Henry decided to download a new app to his phone, or worse my phone, would that app company then have backdoor access to all of the phone’s data?

Let’s say that you enjoy working out and monitor your heart rate on a fitness app. The company that built the app now has access to your personal information. Do you have any idea what exactly they are allowed to do with it? Perhaps they could sell that data to your health insurance company — who could, in turn, charge you more if they think that you don’t exercise enough.

Now, imagine if a tech company had a way to determine if a person is low-income or has a poor credit score. Maybe they go ahead and sell that data to a third party — and, before you know it, the next time that person opens their browser, they’re being served ads for predatory payday lending schemes.

It’s clear that lawlessness in the data privacy space can give rise to new, unexpected forms of injustice.