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For most of American history, following an innocent person took time, money, and effort.
Someone had to physically follow your car, watch your home, search through paper files, or convince a judge that there was a good reason to investigate you.
Today, much of that can be done with a few keystrokes.
Our phones track where we go. Apps collect what we search for, buy, read, and watch. Smart televisions, doorbell cameras, cars, watches, home assistants, credit cards, social media, and government databases create a steady stream of information about our lives.
Then there are automated license plate readers, including Flock cameras. These systems record license plates, vehicle details, locations, dates, and times. When cameras across different cities and agencies are connected, they can create a searchable record of where people travel.
Most people support using technology to find a stolen car, locate a dangerous criminal, or protect the public.
The bigger concern is whether we are building a system that collects information about everyone first and asks questions later.
The movie Minority Reportimagined a future where the government used technology to identify and stop people before they committed a crime. When the movie was released in 2002, that seemed like distant science fiction.
Today, cameras, facial recognition, artificial intelligence, location records, purchasing histories, and large databases can be combined to predict behavior and flag people as suspicious.
We are not living in the world of Minority Report, but its warning feels less fictional than it once did. When the government watches everyone in an attempt to predict who might do something wrong, the basic idea of innocent until proven guilty can slowly be turned upside down.
Technology is also not always accurate. Cameras can misread license plates, facial-recognition systems can identify the wrong person, databases can contain outdated or incorrect information, and artificial intelligence can reach false conclusions. Once a computer labels someone as suspicious, people may assume the technology must be right. But a mistake in a connected system can quickly spread from one agency or database to another. When technology gets it wrong, innocent people need a clear way to challenge the information, correct the record, and hold those responsible accountable.
Fifty Years of Change
Fifty years ago, personal information was spread across filing cabinets, photo albums, banks, doctors’ offices, and government buildings.
Those records were not always secure, but they were separate. It took time and effort to gather them and connect them to one person. Now, much of our information is available online, and in just a few locations.
A federal report from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration found that in 1997, only 36.6% of American households had a computerand 26.3% had a modem. In 1989, only 3.3% of households had a modem.
Today, internet connected devices are almost everywhere. Pew Research Center reported in 2023 that 95% of American adults used the internet, 90% owned a smartphone, and about four in ten said they were online almost constantly.
The growth in the amount of data being created is difficult to imagine. Statistaestimated that the world’s yearly volume of data would reach approximately 182 zettabytes in 2025. A zettabyte equals one trillion gigabytes.
We have gone from filing cabinets to huge data centers that use large amounts of electricity and water. These centers support artificial intelligence, online advertising, banking, government systems, cloud storage, video streaming, and the growing business of collecting and studying information.
The problem is not only how much data exists. The problem is how easily separate pieces can be connected.
One license plate scan may not seem important. Neither may a store purchase, cellphone location, internet search, social media post, or facial image.
But put those records together, and they may show where you travel, whom you visit, what political events you attend, where you worship, which doctors you see, and what products you buy.
At some point, an ordinary life becomes a permanent digital record.
Privacy Is Not a Left or Right Issue
Privacy is sometimes treated as a conservative issue when government surveillance is involved and a liberal issue when large companies are collecting the data.
In truth, it should concern everyone.
A conservative may worry about government overreach, warrantless searches, gun owner databases, financial tracking, or the monitoring of political and religious activity.
A liberal may worry about facial recognition, medical information, protest surveillance, immigration enforcement, discrimination, or companies selling personal data.
Regardless, both sides should be asking the same question:
Who should have the power to watch an innocent person, and what limits should be placed on that power?
A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that 81% of Americans were concerned about how companies use the information they collect, while 71% were concerned about how the government uses personal data.
Pew also found that 73% of Americans believed they had little or no control over the data companies collect about them, while 79% felt they had little or no control over data collected by the government.
Concern about government data use also crossed party lines. From 2019 to 2023, concern among Republicans and Republican leaning Americans increased from 63% to 77%, while concern among Democrats remained steady.
This is not a concern held by only one political party. It is a warning from a large part of the American public.
Technology does not become harmless simply because it is used by a government agency, police department, popular company, or political party we currently trust.
Leaders change.
Administrations change.
Databases remain.
We Say We Care, but Do We Act Like It?
We complain about being tracked, yet most of us carry a tracking device in our pocket every day.
We dislike companies collecting our information, but we agree to long privacy policies without reading them. We place connected cameras, microphones, televisions, toys, thermostats, and appliances inside our homes.
Pew Research Center found that 67% of American adults understood little or nothing about what companies were doing with their personal data.
We often trade privacy for convenience, discounts, entertainment, and speed without fully understanding the trade we are making.
We may agree to share information for one reason without knowing that it can later be sold, stored for years, combined with other records, or accessed by government agencies.
Convenience has become the price we pay for surveillance.
That does not mean ALL technology is bad. It can connect families, improve health care, help solve crimes, support businesses, and make life easier.
But useful technology still needs limits.
Before another camera is installed, another database is connected, or another data center is approved, the public deserves answers.
Who owns the data? Who can search it? Is a warrant required? How long is the information kept? Is it shared with other agencies or companies? Can it be used in private lawsuits? Can false information be corrected? What happens when someone abuses the system? Who pays when an innocent person is harmed?
Those questions should be answered before the technology is put in place, not after the first scandal.
A Generation Rediscovering the Old Ways
Interestingly, some young people who grew up with smartphones are beginning to step back from them.
They are buying vinyl records, film cameras, printed books, wired headphones, paper planners, older video games, and simple “dumb phones.”
Some are taking breaks from social media or choosing hobbies such as gardening, painting, sewing, reading, and journaling activities that do not require an app or create another stream of personal data.
This does not mean an entire generation is rejecting modern technology. Young people remain some of its biggest users.
But there is a visible countertrend.
People who have never known life without constant connection are beginning to see what it has cost them.
They want photographs that do not have to be posted online. They want conversations without constant notifications. They want books, music, and movies they can physically own instead of renting access through monthly subscriptions. They want devices that do one job without tracking everything else. They want peace and their mental health back.
The return of vinyl records is one example. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, U.S. vinyl sales passed $1 billion in 2025, marking the format’s nineteenth straight year of growth. Dumb phones are selling out over and over again through multiple companies.
“The Best Preparation for a Digital Future is an Analogue Education.”
-Emily Cherkin
Perhaps the return to analog technology is not only about nostalgia. Perhaps it is a quiet form of resistance.
It may be a sign that people, especially the younger generation, are realizing convenience is not always freedom, connection is not always community, and newer is not always better.
What Can People Do?
Protecting your privacy does not require moving off the grid or giving up every modern device.
Small changes can make a difference.
· Review the privacy settings on your phone, apps, social-media accounts, smart television, vehicle, and home devices. Turn off location tracking, microphone access, camera access, contacts, and Bluetooth access for apps that do not need them.
· Delete apps you no longer use. An unused app may still collect information or create a security risk.
· Use strong, different passwords for important accounts. A password manager can help you keep track of them. Turn on two-step verification whenever it is available.
· Keep phones, computers, and apps updated. Updates often repair security weaknesses that criminals may use.
· Avoid sharing too much personal information online. Birthdays, addresses, vacation plans, children’s locations, school information, and daily routines can be useful to scammers and criminals.
· Think before taking online quizzes or posting answers to questions about your first car, childhood street, favorite teacher, or mother’s maiden name. Those answers may be similar to security questions used by banks and other accounts.
· Use messaging services with end-to-end encryption when discussing sensitive matters. Be careful when using public Wi-Fi, especially for banking, shopping, or accessing private accounts.
· Cover or disconnect cameras and microphones that are not being used. Review the privacy settings on smart speakers, televisions, doorbell cameras, and children’s devices.
· Consider paying with cash when you do not want a purchase tied to your name, account, or shopping history.
· Ask local officials questions before surveillance technology is approved. Find out what information will be collected, how long it will be kept, who can access it, whether it can be shared, and whether a warrant will be required.
· Support laws that require clear consent, short data retention periods, strong security, public reporting, penalties for misuse, and a meaningful way to correct or remove false information.
Most importantly, remember that “free” services are rarely free. When no money changes hands, your attention, habits, location, and personal information may be the payment.
Drawing a Line
Privacy is not about having something to hide.
We close the bathroom door even when we are doing nothing wrong. We place letters in envelopes. We use passwords. We expect private conversations to remain private.
We do these things because privacy is part of dignity, freedom, and independence.
People should not have to prove why they deserve to be left alone. The government should have to justify an intrusion, follow the Constitution, obtain a warrant when required, and face consequences when power is abused.
Companies should clearly explain what they collect, why they collect it, whom they share it with, and how people can say no.
This debate should not be framed as technology versus no technology, police versus criminals, or Republicans versus Democrats.
The real question is whether technology will remain a tool that serves free people, or whether people will slowly become subjects of the systems built around them.
The question is no longer whether technology can watch us.
It can.
The question is whether privacy still matters enough for us to draw a line.
In Liberty,
Sen. Tammy Nichols
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