Former President Donald Trump will return to the White House for a second term with issues such as Ukraine, the Middle East and immigration highest on his agenda – but what will the US President elect's new mandate mean for data protection and online privacy for the American people?
Some commentators worry that online surveillance could increase. Difficulties in finding a much-needed bipartisan agreement on a comprehensive privacy law could also remain elusive, yet again, and that could leave Americans relying on digital tools to claim back their online privacy for themselves.
Abortion and immigration: could online surveillance really increase?
Under the famous motto "Make America Great Again", Trump has promised sweeping action on some important matters during his second administration.
Illegal immigration has been one of the topics dominating his campaign rallies. He promised, among other things, the biggest mass deportations of undocumented migrants in US history. At the same time, Trump is also a fervent supporter that every US State should decide by itself how to regulate abortion practices – with these reportedly involving reproductive data surveillance since Roe vs Wade fell. Trump also shared many times during his campaign his will to quell political opponents if re-elected.
So, does the incoming President now plan to increase online surveillance to achieve his objectives?
According to Alex Southwell, leading technology-focused litigator and investigations lawyer at US law firm McDermott Will & Emery, there is certainly that risk.
He said: "It remains to be seen whether and how much campaign rhetoric will translate into action but there are clear laws that govern the most intrusive surveillance, and I’d expect the career government officials who act on such issues to follow those laws."
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However, serious questions have already been raised over previously proposed US government surveillance practices.
According to lawsuit documents obtained by the digital rights advocate group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Biden presidency has simply changed the name to the Extreme Digital Vetting federal program, proposed by the first Trump administration, which was set to surveil the social media activities of immigrants and foreign visitors. The EFF has been calling for the government to abandon this plan since the beginning citing free speech and privacy implications.
Regarding abortion, Al Jazeera debunked the claim that Trump would use the so-called Project 2025 to force states to monitor women’s pregnancies.
That said, state authorities have already used Facebook data to persecute a teenager in Nebraska. A recent report from 404 Media also reveals how law enforcement might be using a powerful tracking tool, Locate X, to track people visiting abortion clinics out-of-state without a warrant.
Nonetheless, the newly elected President is a firm believer that it's up to the states themselves to choose to monitor pregnancies or punish women seeking an abortion where it is illegal to do so. It's very possible, then, that state authorities could continue such surveillance activities without many federal challenges in the coming term.
What about US data protection laws?
When it comes to data protection, the United States appears less than a superpower. Research conducted by VPN provider Private Internet Access (PIA) last year showed an imbalance of protection across states, and little has changed.
While the likes of California, Connecticut, Colorado, Virginia, and others have clear data-sharing policies in place, the US still lacks comprehensive data privacy legislation on a federal level.
The US government seeks to crack down on firms selling user data to certain countries. In the proposal published on October 21, 2024, the Department of Justice (DoJ) is looking to impose a blanket ban on the sale of 'bulk US sensitive personal data' to six states the US deems ‘countries of concern’ – China, Iran, Russia, The DPRK (North Korea), Cuba, and Venezuela.
There have been attempts over the years – the last being the American Privacy Rights Act landing in Congress back in April – but the proposal seems to be lying on the slush pule of the outgoing administration.
Southwell expects a comprehensive federal privacy law to "remain elusive" yet again, throughout the new Trump mandate.
"Despite potential one-party control of Congress, I don’t see a comprehensive privacy bill being a priority in the near term," he said, adding that we could nonetheless see some sectoral laws enacted federally in the privacy space instead.
According to India McKinney, Director of Federal Affairs at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, federal data protection has always been a bipartisan matter, and the same difficulties are likely to carry on into the next administration.
She hopes, however, that the fear of increased government surveillance could push more citizens to demand that lawmakers make changes and provide better protection.
She said: "Freedoms like the right to privacy aren't fully appreciated until they've been stripped away. And, as we have seen with the right to abortion, Americans hate it when their rights are taken."
How to protect your personal data online now
For now, the duty of care for American data and privacy lies with citizens themselves, and that doesn't look to be changing during the next presidential term.
If you're concerned, then a secure VPN service is one way to boost your browsing privacy. A VPN, short for virtual private network (VPN) keeps you anonymous online by encrypting all your internet connections and spoofing your IP address location.
You should coupled it with a secure web browser, like Tor or Mullvad browser, when entering highly sensitive search queries. Using just Incognito mode isn't enough for true browsing privacy.
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Encrypted messaging apps are the equivalent for mobile instant messaging services. Signal ensures the content of your communications remain private. Applications like Session go a step further by also hiding your identifiable metadata too.
Lastly, you might want to reconsider using period tracker apps if you're concerned about your reproductive data privacy. These services are known for collecting and sharing information about you which could potentially be used later during investigations.
