>> "So I'm curious, are there any cities, counties, states with any sort of legislative efforts going on to strengthen the citizens' rights to privacy and owner

>> "So I'm curious, are there any cities, counties, states with any sort of legislative efforts going on to strengthen the citizens' rights to privacy and ownership of data? Is there anyone we can look to as a model for "privacy and data ownership done right," something to work toward implementing at a national level? Is there any awareness group working to raise these issues in a way that's actually accessible to the general public? (Are they doing a good job at it?)" I'm in a similar position to you. I value my privacy and think it's an important right the needs to be protected. Unfortunately you miss out on a hell of a lot of things if you are strict about maintaining it (thanks mostly to ad supported web services). I also agree that it's through laws that this can be fixed. I think generally laws just can't keep up with the pace of technological change or are made by people with almost no technical knowledge. I'm actually just about to start studying for a law degree (I'm in my late 20's) so that I can apply my technical knowledge (I've been a full-time dev for the last 7 years) to privacy law. Hence I've been researching it a lot recently. The best group I've come across raising awareness and fighting for privacy is Privacy International. It's definitely worth checking out. They produce reports on privacy rights in countries throughout the world and they fight government legislation trying to erode our privacy rights. As for legislative efforts to strengthen privacy the EU's recent changes to data protection and data use of EU citizens by companies based outside the EU springs to mind (Privacy Shield). It's not great but there is effort to improve.