The Associated Press is implementing a discretionary privacy regime across 20 states to manage data “selling” and “sharing” protocols while simultaneously licensing news data to AI developers.
The Associated Press, a cornerstone of the American news apparatus since 1846, is currently navigating a complex regulatory landscape as state-level privacy protections collide with the lucrative demands of the AI era. While the organization maintains a public stance of neutrality, its internal data governance reveals the friction between protecting reader privacy and participating in the data capitalism that fuels modern news distribution. As of March 3, 2026, the AP has updated its business-to-business privacy policy to address a rapidly expanding map of 20 U.S. states with comprehensive privacy laws, including California, Colorado, Texas, and Virginia.
This updated policy highlights a voluntary compliance model common among large non-profits. Despite its non-profit status—which often provides a statutory shield from certain state mandates—the AP has chosen to honor access, deletion, and correction requests from residents in these jurisdictions. This positioning suggests a strategic decision to align with the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) rather than litigating exemptions. On its consumer-facing politics pages, the AP now explicitly acknowledges that its use of tracking technologies, including cookies and device identifiers, may be classified as “selling” or “sharing/processing” for targeted advertising under these evolving statutes.
To manage this, the AP has deployed a granular consent management platform. Users are presented with a “Manage Your Privacy Choices” interface that categorizes tracking into four distinct buckets: strictly necessary, functional, performance, and targeting. While strictly necessary cookies remain active for site functionality, users can theoretically disable targeting cookies set by third-party advertising partners. However, the AP notes that these protections are browser-specific and temporary; users must renew their selections on every device and every time they clear their cookies, a requirement that places the burden of digital sovereignty squarely on the individual.
Beyond the visible layer of advertising cookies, a more significant data vector is emerging in the AP’s licensing department. The organization has disclosed that it licenses published news content—which often includes incidental personal data found in reporting—to “technology solution providers.” This group explicitly includes AI engines and platforms used for redistribution, analysis, and product development. While the AP’s B2B policy claims it does not “sell” information for analytics, the redistribution of journalism into large language models represents a secondary market for data that falls outside the traditional scope of targeted advertising opt-outs.
The AP’s reliance on third-party tools like ZoomInfo for business development further complicates its “no sale” claims. While the organization utilizes IP anonymization for Google Analytics to distance itself from invasive tracking, the integration of enrichment services suggests a persistent need to monetize the digital footprints of its professional audience. This creates a split between the AP’s business properties and its consumer news sites. The latter now routinely surfaces footer links such as “Your Privacy Rights” and the California-mandated “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information,” aligning the user experience with the emerging DROP deletion framework.
This bifurcated approach—tightening controls on front-end advertising while expanding back-end AI licensing—reflects a broader trend in the media industry. As the Federal Reserve faces pressure to raise rates due to inflation and the Pentagon disputes AI model integration with firms like Anthropic, the providers of the underlying training data are cementing their roles as essential infrastructure. For the American citizen, these disclosures serve as a reminder that even the most trusted names in news are tethered to the data-sharing ecosystems they report on. The AP’s discretionary compliance highlights the lack of a single federal standard, leaving citizens to navigate a patchwork of state laws to reclaim their digital identity.
Lisa Grant serves as a Staff Writer for Just Right News, where she spearheads the publication’s coverage of Technology, Data Capitalism, and Surveillance. With a focus on the encroaching influence of Big Tech on the American way of life, Grant brings a critical, liberty-minded perspective to the most complex digital issues of the modern era. Her reporting is defined by a deep-seated skepticism of centralized power and a commitment to protecting the privacy and autonomy of the individual against the rising tide of what she calls the “Algorithmic State.”
Grant’s unique insight into the tech industry is rooted in her upbringing in Palo Alto, California. Growing up in the epicenter of Silicon Valley, she witnessed firsthand the transformation of the technology sector from a hub of scrappy, freedom-loving innovators into a landscape dominated by monolithic corporations. This proximity to the birth of the digital revolution provided her with an insider’s understanding of the culture and motivations driving the industry. For Grant, the shift toward data capitalism—where personal information is harvested as a primary commodity—is not just a market evolution, but a fundamental challenge to traditional American values of property rights and personal privacy. She saw the “garage startup” ethos replaced by a culture of data-mining and social engineering, a transition that informs her vigilant reporting today.
Now based in Seattle, Washington, Grant operates from another of the nation’s primary technological frontiers. Her location in the Pacific Northwest allows her to observe the real-world consequences of the tech industry’s expansion, from the implementation of invasive surveillance technologies in urban centers to the growing partnership between corporate entities and municipal governance. By reporting from the ground in Seattle, she bridges the gap between the abstract world of coding and the tangible impact it has on citizens’ daily lives, often highlighting how local policies serve as a testing ground for broader national surveillance initiatives.
At the heart of her work for Just Right News is her acclaimed feature series, “The Algorithmic State.” Through this series, Grant explores the ways in which automated systems and artificial intelligence are increasingly used to bypass traditional legislative processes and social norms. She argues that the reliance on opaque algorithms to manage society threatens to erode the transparency and accountability essential to a free republic. Her work meticulously documents how data-driven governance can lead to a “soft” surveillance state that penalizes traditional viewpoints and rewards digital conformity.
Grant’s reporting is a vital resource for readers who are wary of the “nanny state” and the unchecked power of digital gatekeepers. She views the defense of the digital frontier as the next great battle for constitutional conservatives. By exposing the mechanisms of data capitalism and the quiet expansion of surveillance networks, she empowers her audience to reclaim their digital sovereignty. In an era where information is often weaponized by those in power, Lisa Grant remains a steadfast advocate for the truth, ensuring that the principles of liberty and individual agency are not lost in the transition to an increasingly digital world.