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The Impact of Apathy on the Future of Knowledge
-- By ShannonGeoghegan - 27 Mar 2025
Introduction
In the United States, modern data privacy law derives from statutes. The Constitution provides no comprehensive right to data privacy, and the result is a “patchwork approach to privacy.” According to recent studies, Americans care about these laws—or at least they claim to care about them. In truth, the divergence between how much Americans care about data privacy, how greatly the issue affects their voting habits, and how much privacy they are content to concede is enormous.
The implications of poor privacy protections are equally enormous. Not only does weak data privacy correlate with cybercrime, data breaches, and fraud, there are other, more pervasive and analytical implications as well. Poor data privacy may decrease people’s access to knowledge and/or compromise the quality of existing knowledge. To prevent the worst effects of these depravations, data privacy advocates should address the issue of apathy.
Apathy and Data Privacy
The world of data privacy has not escaped the deep partisan divides of modern American politics. Where blue states have “emphasize[d] consumer rights and protections,” red states are “prioritize[ing] economic growth and entrepreneurial spirit.” Currently, questions of apathy in the electoral context center around the motivations of nonvoters. Scholars questions what are the motivations of those who do not participate in elections.. Others study why civic engagement is at a “near all-time low,” focusing on the effects of polarization on the electorate.
But apathy does not solely manifest in the act of non-voting. It manifests too in the disregard for the dignity of others, in the degradation of societal values and norms. When Americans prioritize certain policies—such as the economic promises made during the last general election —the result is a hierarchy of sorts. These divisions sanction the advancement of high ranking concerns at the expense of low ranking concerns. Exit polls from the 2024 election indicate that Americans were motivated principally by the economy and immigration, not data privacy. And while this is unsurprising given the national rhetoric—especially considering data privacy is not often a topic of national discourse — the data is concerning.
On the upside, most Americans have the awareness to not trust social media companies to protect their data, and most believe that the government should be doing more to protect it. Most Americans understand that their digital footprint is at risk, and most are concerned about how their data will be used. On paper, it appears as though Americans are highly concerned and educated about the privacy of their data. But in practice, Americans do not act with such concerns top of mind.
Ironically—while most Americans contend that they “won’t do business with a company if they have concerns about its security practices,” —a majority of Americans voted for Donald Trump, a man known to skirt security protocols and whose data security practices have faced intense and warranted scrutiny. The disconnect between what Americans think, how they act, and what they prioritize is unanswered for. In practice, Americans seem content to dismiss their privacy concerns.
For example, many Americans are “willing to trade some of their data for discounts by subscribing to newsletters…” And despite their concerns, Americans and their media engages in little to no national discourse on data privacy. Although Americans do not themselves make policy, their means for implementing change—namely, voting and activism—also do not reflect the purported magnitude of their concerns. There are few issues that Americans agree so decisively on, like they do data privacy. And this should indicate that—in a rational world—Congress would pursue pro-privacy protections to address voters’ concerns. But this is not the case, and Americans have not challenged this reality. Here, the disconnect grows further. Even though data privacy is a standalone policy area—and thus separate from the economy and immigration—all three overlap greatly. It would behoove Americans to recognize these intersections.
The Effects of Apathy on Knowledge
Looking forward, attacks on data privacy—as well as the misuse of people’s data—are imminent. The Trump administration is pursuing a host of anti-privacy measures that compromise the security and welfare of the American people. The effects of poor data privacy protection will be damning, at both the individual and societal levels. As the agenda of the current administration seeks to compromise people’s access to information—and as few institutional actors have yet succeeded in stopping it—the implications are dangerous.
Current data policies seek to attack the vulnerable, to expose and even punish those with whom the administration disagrees. The fear this can breed—demonstrated well on college campuses, at the border, and in immigration-related proceedings—jeopardizes how much and what exactly people are willing or able to share. The effects of this may be short-lived, or they may extend well into the future. The apathy of American voters must be addressed—not in the non-voting sense, but in how Americans classify their priorities.
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