The Price of Your Digital Footprint

Tech billionaires are profiting off of Americans’ data

Tech billionaires have an outsized influence on our democracy — and they’ve amassed their wealth and influence directly from your data.

There is so much talk of corruption, chaos, and abuse of power in the news cycle right now. To anyone invested in protecting our democracy and keeping government checks and balances intact, it can all feel very overwhelming. But if you’re trying to understand exactly why tech billionaires like Elon Musk are able to have such an outsized influence on our political system, look no further than two of Issue One’s key policy priorities: money in politics and comprehensive data privacy. Our current system and the policies in place enable the leaders of Big Tech companies to monetize our data, and in turn, wield that power in our politics, helping relegate the very voices they’re profiting off of.

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How is this happening?

Think back to Trump's inauguration a few weeks ago. Every major tech CEO stood firmly behind him, expressing their support for the new administration.

These seats cost several fortunes and these fortunes are amassed every second we spend engaging with the digital world — your digital footprint is contributing to their wealth and ability to spend a big chunk of change on those seats. Tech companies monitor your habits, interests, and engagement in order to create incredibly detailed profiles for each active user. They then use this data to improve their algorithms with the goal of increasing your time on the platform. The real money comes from exposing each user to hyper-specific, targeted advertisements. Naturally, the longer you spend on the platform, the more ads you’re exposed to and the money keeps rolling in. Tech companies keep the profits and, in return, knowingly turn the other way when the power of their platforms has been shown to intensify division and amplify extremism.

In his book Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, accomplished finance minister and author Yanis Varoufakis’ explanation of wealth accumulation was compelling to me:

Here is a glimpse of what makes cloud capital so fundamentally new, different, and scary: capital has hitherto been reproduced within some labor market – within the factory, the office, the warehouse… Cloud capital, in contrast, can reproduce in ways that involve no waged labor. How? By commanding almost the whole of humanity to chip in to its reproduction – for free!

Tech companies have monetized every moment of our digital experience to create this “cloud capital” and amass their incredible wealth, influence, and power. Unfortunately, this strategy proves even more effective when our political system lacks guardrails to curb the influence of money in politics.

In fact, Issue One’s latest lobbying report found that the top six tech companies, including Meta, ByteDance, and X, employed nearly 300 lobbyists in 2024 — or one for every two members of Congress. And we’ve seen time and time again the impact tech companies’ wealth can have in the political sphere. Many have started to refer to this as the “broligarchy.” Call it what you want, but it’s simply undemocratic.

What can we do?

1. Pass a strong comprehensive federal data privacy bill. Strong comprehensive data privacy would include a data minimization standard, like the one recently passed by Maryland, that would only allow companies to collect data that is strictly necessary for them to operate their services.

2. Hold tech companies accountable for their harms to our democracy. Tech companies have also amassed tremendous wealth by avoiding legal liability for the harms that they’ve profited off of, from foreign malign influence to kid’s safety risks. Reform to Section 230 — one of Issue One’s key recommendations for Congress — would ensure that tech billionaires cannot continue escaping civil liability for product design decisions.

3. Curb the influence of big money in politics. Billionaires should not be able to buy their way into our government, nor should their status make it so that their voices take precedence. Calls for anti-corruption seem broad, but Issue One has explored legislative solutions like limiting contributions to political action committees, increasing government transparency, and taking on SCOTUS’ Citizens United decision that allows political spending to be protected under the First Amendment.

Now is not the time to look away. It’s essential that we commit to furthering actionable solutions that defend democracy and rebalance power in favor of the American people so that it’s ensured that our government is acting in the best interest of We the People — not the wealthy few.

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