Proposed data privacy law would hurt my small business
Seventeen years ago, my brother, sister and I started sharing a simple stress-relieving method called Emotional Freedom Technique Tapping (or “tapping”) with people worldwide. The technique combines ancient Chinese acupressure with modern psychology, and involves mindfully tapping key points on the body to relieve stress and increase circulation.
It’s effective> and inexpensive, and has helped millions of people improve their mental and physical health.
We started by offering books and seminars. But global stress levels increased dramatically in the 2010s, so in 2018 we launched an app to bring personalized tapping routines to the masses. Today, more than 20 million people in 130 countries use it.
Tapping offers a powerful solution to an all-too-common condition. For years, we’ve used data-powered digital advertising to reach people likely to benefit from it. Data-powered advertising helps us reach the right audience, and it helps those in need of a wellness solution find us. Data is critical to our business and our mission — so I’m worried that the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) will make it harder and more expensive for us to reach people who might benefit from our tapping technique.
I know Americans’ privacy is a serious issue, and the U.S. needs national data privacy legislation to replace today’s jumble of state laws. But APRA would overregulate data, making it harder for small businesses to find and communicate with customers. Although the bill is well-intentioned, it could hurt thousands of specialty businesses like mine, along with the people we serve.
We offer a natural wellness technique, so we need to advertise to a specific segment of people. Television ads are too expensive, and they’re ineffective for specialty offerings like ours. Fortunately, digital ad partners like Google and Facebook offer data processing services that ensure we’re showing our ads to the right audience. That lets us reach more people for less money, allowing us to focus on updating our app and researching and writing about tapping’s benefits.
Some lawmakers say APRA will only impact huge data brokers. But the bill covers any business that annually generates more than 200,000 data points — bits of information from doing things like clicking ads or visiting websites. That sounds like a big number, but many small businesses easily surpass it. That’s because in the digital age even a little family business like mine may have customers worldwide. We have zero in common with massive data brokers, but APRA would regulate us in exactly the same way.
That has major consequences. APRA says covered businesses can only use data for the specific purpose a customer intended. For businesses like mine, that would put an end to common marketing practices like sending ads about our app to people who looked at our website, or emailing app subscribers about forthcoming books or conferences. That’s bad for our business, and it means people may miss out on information they’d find helpful.
APRA would also cover our larger digital partners, meaning they could no longer process data to do incredibly valuable things like ensuring our ads and emails go to the right people or measuring which ads are most effective. Losing those data-powered digital tools would have a significant negative impact on us, along with thousands of small businesses and app publishers around the country.
Finally, APRA contains a “private right of action,” meaning anyone could sue us, alleging that we’d broken the law. In the past, unethical lawyers have used private rights of action to extract fees from small businesses. They threaten a costly lawsuit, then say they’d accept a less costly settlement, usually several thousand dollars. Most small businesses have no choice but to pay up.
For us, data-powered ads are about more than keeping our business strong. They’ve allowed us to help millions of people lead happier, healthier lives. I urge lawmakers to listen to a range of stories and perspectives and to consider APRA’s impact carefully.
Nick Ortner lives in Newtown and is a New York Times best-selling author and co-founder of The Tapping Solution.
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