We need to regulate private data amassed by internet giants the same way we regulate data gathered by credit reporting agencies.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act [1]:
- regulates what data credit agencies can store,
- mandates that people be able to access data about themselves,
- mandates that third parties cannot access a person's data without the person's consent every single time,
- mandates that people must be able to correct false information in their credit file,
- mandates that people be able to place a "freeze" on uses of their credit data
Each of these things translates quite nicely to private data that internet giants gather on us.