David came to this country as a Dreamer at the age of 14 – crossing the border with his sister on his back, as they escaped political turmoil in their native Guatemala. David and his family settled in Southern California, where his mother worked as a janitor, and his father, a carpenter. He learned English in public schools, before earning scholarships to Stanford and Harvard law. As a young man, he came out to his family and friends, and he is now married to his husband of 20 years.
Our data has immense value. But we give it away for free. Every time we click a link, or post about a friend’s birthday, we give tech companies essential information that advertisers pay big money for.
From October to December 2021, Facebook made $32.8 billion in advertising revenue. This $32.8 billion would not be possible without us – and our data.
But what would it look like if WE took control of our data?
Once elected to the state Assembly, I will propose that a percentage of the profit that tech companies make using our personal data be shared – with the state and the public.
These profits should go towards helping to close the massive digital divide in California, with nearly 40% of low-income students without reliable internet access in fall 2020.
In the minute it took you to read this, 277,777 stories were shared to Instagram, 400 new users created a Facebook page, Google handled 3.8 million searches and Facebook made $220,000 off of our data.
It’s time WE took control of our data instead of letting Big Tech make billions off of it at our expense.