Reimagining Privacy in the AI Era: A New Global Call for Personal Data Privacy as a Public Good
For decades, consumers have been told that protecting privacy is their responsibility.
Read the terms and conditions. Adjust countless privacy settings. Tick the right consent boxes.
Yet systems designed to profit from consumer data have created a default that prioritises mass collection and makes it difficult to choose otherwise.
Now, artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the rules again.
As AI transforms how personal data is collected, analysed and used, the idea that privacy can be protected through individual choice alone is reaching its limits.
Today, Consumers International launches Reimagining Privacy in the AI Era: Personal Data Privacy as a Public Good, a global campaign calling for a fundamental rethink of privacy in the age of AI.
Drawing on findings from our 2025 Global AI Survey and engagement across the global consumer movement, the campaign highlights a growing reality: privacy can no longer be treated as an individual responsibility alone. Instead, personal data privacy should be recognised as a shared societal interest that requires stronger protections, greater accountability and collective action.
READ OUR MULTISTAKEHOLDER CALL-TO-ACTION
If your organisation shares our commitment to ensuring AI works with and for consumers, we invite you to become a signatory and help shape a new model of privacy for the AI era. Contact media@consint.org to join the alliance.
THE EXPANDED PRIVACY CHALLENGE IN THE AGE OF AI
Artificial intelligence is already shaping consumers' lives in ways most people never see.
It influences what we buy, what ads we encounter, which financial products we are offered and, increasingly, decisions about healthcare, insurance, and credit.
Modern AI systems can generate powerful predictions from seemingly ordinary pieces of information. Consumers may never explicitly reveal a health condition, financial challenge or major life event. Yet AI systems can infer these details by analysing patterns in behaviour, purchases, location data and the activities of millions of other people.
The result is a widening gap between what consumers believe they are agreeing to and how their personal data is ultimately used.
In our 2025 Global AI Survey, 90% of consumer advocates identified privacy risks as one of the most significant consumer concerns associated with AI. Through consultations with consumer organisations worldwide and discussions with businesses and policymakers, one message emerged clearly: the burden of protecting privacy has become too great for individual consumers to carry alone.
WHY AI CHANGES THE EQUATION
AI holds enormous promise, with 52% of consumer advocates worldwide believing AI will have a positive impact on consumers.
The challenge is not data use itself. Data can help deliver innovation, convenience and better consumer outcomes. The challenge is making sure personal data is used in ways that serve consumer interests. Consumers should be protected from harm and confident they are treated fairly.
Imagine signing up for a supermarket loyalty card to save money on your weekly shop. Years later, that same shopping data could help generate predictions about your health, financial circumstances or future behaviour. Those predictions may influence the offers, services and opportunities presented to you, often without your knowledge.
These decisions increasingly happen behind the scenes.
Many consumers do not know when an AI system is shaping an outcome that affects them. Fewer still understand how their information is being used or what rights they have when something goes wrong.
As AI becomes woven into everyday life, meaningful control over personal data is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve. This is the challenge our campaign seeks to address.
A NEW VISION: PRIVACY AS A PUBLIC GOOD
Our campaign starts with a simple idea: privacy should not depend on how much time, expertise or determination an individual has to navigate complex digital systems.
Just as society relies on collective protections for food safety, road safety and clean air, privacy in the AI era requires collective protection too.
Treating personal data privacy as a public good does not mean restricting innovation or using less data. It means ensuring data is governed in ways that maximise benefits while minimising harm. It means building protections into the systems from the start rather than relying on consumers to navigate increasingly complex risks on their own.
Six Privacy Principles for the AI Era
To help turn this vision into action, the campaign sets out six principles for policymakers, regulators, businesses and consumer advocates.
1. Data serves the consumer interest first
Personal data should be used in ways that benefit consumers and remain consistent with the purpose for which it was collected. Data practices should be fair, proportionate and secure.
2. Safeguard against harmful AI profiling
Consumers need protection not only from excessive data collection, but also from harmful predictions and profiling generated by AI systems, particularly where these may lead to unfair treatment, discrimination or manipulation.
3. Ensure accountability and effective enforcement
Consumer protection should be built into AI systems, markets and regulatory frameworks. Businesses, regulators and policymakers all have a role in ensuring privacy protections are meaningful and enforceable.
4. Enable easy exit, portability and real choice
Consumers should be able to move, access and delete their data easily, and choose services that align with their privacy expectations without being locked in.
5. Mandate pre-testing, monitoring and human intervention
AI systems should be tested and monitored before and after deployment, with meaningful human oversight to identify and address harmful outcomes.
6. Ensure effective remedy and redress
Consumers should be able to understand AI-driven decisions, challenge outcomes and access timely and effective redress when harms occur.
Delivering better outcomes for stakeholders
Join Us
Protecting personal data privacy in the age of AI requires collaboration across governments, regulators, businesses, consumer organisations and civil society.
Already, 30+ organisations and institutions have joined the Reimagining Privacy in the AI Era: Personal Data Privacy as a Public Good campaign.
If your organisation shares our commitment to ensuring AI works with and for consumers, we invite you to become a signatory and help shape a new model of privacy for the AI era. Email media@consint.org to join the alliance and receive campaign materials.
