States are fighting back against doxing and political harassment with new privacy protections for nonprofit supporters.
Is privacy a lost cause in today’s world of doxing and digital surveillance? Not so fast, says a growing bipartisan movement of lawmakers and nonprofits.
Since 2018, 20 states have passed legislation to shield Americans’ names and home addresses when supporting nonprofit organizations. Known as the Personal Privacy Protection Act (PPPA), the law ensures that citizens are free to join, volunteer for, and donate to the causes they believe in without fear of harassment or intimidation from government officials or private actors. That, in turn, secures the right of nonprofits to pursue their missions and speak openly about their beliefs without risk of backlash against their members.
In an era of polarization and toxicity in politics, Democrats and Republicans are finding common ground in the defense of personal privacy and free speech.
My organization, People United for Privacy, was founded in 2018 to address this specific issue. For years, we watched state governments controlled by both parties disrespect the long-held privacy rights of Americans when supporting nonprofits. State officials issued broad demands for nonprofits’ donor lists, harassed groups they disagreed with on policy issues, and failed to secure supposedly confidential member and donor information obtained from nonprofit organizations.
These privacy violations had an alarming impact. The number of Americans who contribute to charitable causes began to fall, and many nonprofits stopped engaging on contested public policy issues. Citizens who rely on these organizations to be their voice in the public arena were effectively silenced.
That’s bad enough, but it’s not all. As the Americans who favor civil debate were chased away, ideologues who relish partisan combat took center stage. Brash, extreme voices that don’t care how they are perceived came to infect and dominate our most important debates. The lack of safeguards for donor privacy made our civil discourse more polarized and abrasive.
We knew there was a better way: Protect every American’s right to participate in nonprofit causes with their privacy and security intact. We also knew this was not a partisan cause. Nonprofits on opposite sides of controversial issues like abortion, gun rights, education, labor issues, and the environment all rely on the right to protect the privacy of their members.
Building bipartisan coalitions in today’s political environment is a tough task. Yet, we found that people were hungry to set aside the partisanship and talk about real, practical solutions. Through careful conversations and a slow process of building trust between groups that were usually at odds, we fostered a unique, bipartisan, and broad-based coalition for privacy.
The Personal Privacy Protection Act is our biggest achievement to date. The law has been sponsored by Democratic and Republican lawmakers, signed into law by governors from both parties, and passed with overwhelming bipartisan majorities. Three states – Alabama, Colorado, and Nebraska – have passed the PPPA unanimously since last year.
Along the way, the PPPA has won support from various state chapters of the ACLU, NAACP, and Planned Parenthood as well as pro-life groups, gun rights groups, and anti-tax groups. Despite disagreeing on most issues, these organizations are coming together as one to protect their members. That kind of across-the-aisle coalition is increasingly rare in politics today.
Donors have many reasons to value their privacy when giving to nonprofits. Some give anonymously for religious or ethical reasons, while others simply wish to avoid unwanted solicitations. Some Americans have real concern for backlash if their giving choices were publicized to their employers, business competitors, community members, extreme activists, or petty local officials.
The PPPA protects every American and every nonprofit in the 20 states where it has passed. Who holds power in government and society is bound to change over time, but citizens deserve confidence that their rights will always remain secure, regardless of the partisan machinations of those in power. The bipartisan movement for privacy offers real hope for turning down the temperature in our politics and uplifting civil debate once more.
Heather Lauer is the CEO of People United for Privacy, a nonprofit that defends the First Amendment rights of all Americans, regardless of their beliefs, to come together in support of their shared values.
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