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Your neighbor received a “personalized” letter in the mail about their retirement plan. It directs them to the website of a company they have never heard of.
Your best friend gets an email message from their grocery store with discounts and coupons “just for them” at least once a month. They click on it and scan the coupon at the store the next time they are there.
Oregonians experience situations like this on a daily basis. In a time where companies buy, sell, and use our information—often without our knowledge or permission, avoiding them seems harder and harder.
But not all hopes for privacy are lost. We can take control of who gets to use, collect, or sell our information by exercising our rights under the Oregon Consumer Privacy Act and teaching others about these rights.
All you need is a computer, internet access, and some time with your loved ones.
Start the conversation
We’re creating personal data everywhere, every day, but that’s not how most of us think about it. We just think of it as that spam call, personalized ad, or junk mail. Find those common occurrences to begin the conversation!
“Another spam message, grandma? Our personal information, like your phone number, is getting shared around by so many companies. Often it’s done without our permission!”
Connect these moments with data privacy as a whole
Lack of data privacy may feel like an inevitable part of life, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be able to have control over our information. While a spam text message may be a small irritation to some, it’s the tip of the iceberg when it comes to companies collecting, using, sharing, and selling our information for profit.
“You know, there’s a new Oregon law that lets us control who has our information, and more importantly limit what they can do with it.
There are things I don’t want companies knowing about me, and it’s great that we have some control over that now.”
Sit down and brainstorm
“I can sit down and show you what we can do… Do you have 30 minutes so we can go through it together?”
“Let’s start with creating a list of places you visit, things you do, apps you use, mail or news you’re subscribed to—it doesn’t have to be a perfect list, but it’s a great way to start seeing who may have what information.”
Get on the computer and start requesting
“So grandma, what would you like to do now that we have a list of businesses that have your information? And remember, we can do these things one step at a time.”
"You want the business to delete information they have about you? Okay, let's do a keyword search for "delete" or "remove" to directly make that request."
Reassure, check-in, and follow up
“These companies have to respond to today's request in 45 days. I’ll check up with you next month. If they don’t respond, we can sit down at the computer to file a quick complaint to the Oregon Department of Justice.”
Resource yourself
Get the resources and support you need to feel prepared for this conversation! Here are several sources to do so:
Oregon Department of Justice – For those ready to take control of their data.
Electronic Frontier Foundation – For those looking to dive deeper into data and digital privacy.
Your data belongs to you, but not everyone has the ability or knowledge to keep our information to ourselves. The Oregon Consumer Privacy Act is only as strong as we make it—and that means helping people around us so we can all exercise our collective rights under the law.
