Rep. Shannon Zimmerman on Personal Data and Consumer Rights

Frederica Freyberg:
Location tracking on cell phones means your everyday movements are not your own. Take, for example, an investigation that found that a nonprofit founded by Wisconsin Right to Life aimed targeted ads to people who visited abortion providers, including 14 million such ads in Wisconsin. Data privacy laws are being passed in states across the country and in Europe. Here in Wisconsin, the state Assembly unanimously passed the Data Privacy Act. It awaits Senate action. Its author, Representative Shannon Zimmerman of River Falls joins us now. Thanks very much for being here.

Shannon Zimmerman:
My pleasure. Thank you for the invitation.

Frederica Freyberg:
So how urgently do you want the Senate to take this up?

Shannon Zimmerman:
As soon as possible. I view this as one of the most important bills. I come from the technology sector. I’ve spent my 25-year career in tech, and the position I’ve taken with my colleagues is that we’ve never before lived in a time of innovation like we are right now. Most of the world is just awakening to this thing called artificial intelligence. AI is pretty simple in this regard. It builds its capabilities off of what’s called large language models. Large language models are data. And so when individuals’ personal data becomes a part of that training material, that can may be unnerving and/or not what they would have wanted. So in this era of innovation, which is great for a lot of reasons, I think the protection, the individual’s right to protection of their data has never before been as important as it is right now.

Frederica Freyberg:
What does the Data Privacy Act call for?

Shannon Zimmerman:
The bill essentially has three components, and a moment ago, you made reference to the fact that other states have done this and, in fact, other continents. Europe, for example, in 2018, incorporated what’s called GDPR, the global data protection regulation. And GDPR is a very robust set of regulations focused on privacy, cybersecurity, et cetera. This bill is a small subset of that. Rather than try and boil the ocean and get nothing done, let’s be specific was my thought and focus on three things: number one, individuals in the state of Wisconsin would have the right to say to any data collector, what do you have on me? Number two, to whom have you shared or sold that information? And third and finally, you have a right to say no. Delete it, please remove it, I’m uncomfortable with that. Those are the three main pillars of this legislation.

Frederica Freyberg:
Describe what kind of personal data is being captured and how.

Shannon Zimmerman:
We have, in its simplest form, information that we willingly provide to collectors for loyalty programs. Right? This could be your Kwik Trip rewards card, which is great. I spend, I buy these products and I get some Caribou Coffee. Probably not something that people get too worked up about. But you are many times being tracked, listened to, information is being collected on you that maybe you’re not aware of and literally this could span any form of digital data that would exist on you. You mentioned geolocation data at the start of this segment. That’s one example of data that can be collected on individuals. And so my thinking here is that many cases, a person willingly makes that exchange. They say, “Yes, I’m okay with you tracking that because maybe I get a discount reward at, again, Kwik Trip.” However, in other examples, there may be situations where absolutely not, I don’t want that sensitive personal information. Can you imagine, and I’m not using Alexa as a specific example of this, but that type of device. People have devices in their homes that are listening all the time and information, conversations that are shared in the privacy of your living room or at your kitchen table, I think there’s an expectation of individuals that that, in fact is private because we wouldn’t let somebody just walk in to our home, sit there and listen and then use that information, so it really is a broad, broad array of data.

Frederica Freyberg:
Do you expect the Senate to take this up and pass it?

Shannon Zimmerman:
I am imploring the Senate to please take this up and pass it at this point in time. Now to be candid, there are a couple of groups right now that are working really, really hard to make sure this bill doesn’t get to the Senate floor. I am super hopeful that the Senate does what’s right here for Wisconsin residents and pushes this thing across the finish line to the governor’s office.

Frederica Freyberg:
And those groups are business groups including Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. What are their objections?

Shannon Zimmerman:
So WMC, and I have a high degree of respect, I’ve worked a lot with WMC in the past, and they do a great job for small businesses, large businesses across the entire state of Wisconsin, but initially they had one primary argument, which was, “Hey, Shannon, this really should be taken up at the federal level.” What the United States doesn’t need is a tapestry of different legislation similar but not exactly the same. This should be taken up at the federal level. I agree. I 100% agree with WMC on this. The challenge that we have is that the federal government seems nearly incapable of doing anything these days, getting anything done. The second argument that they make is that it’s going to be burdensome and costly. You’re telling me that the over 10 states in the United States that have passed this, the entire European Union has implemented this since 2018, are people conducting business in those areas? Absolutely, they are. So I think that the protection and the benefit from the protection far outweighs those exaggerated arguments.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Representative Shannon Zimmerman, thanks very much.

Shannon Zimmerman:
Thank you.