My plan for data centers, AI and your privacy
We’ve been through a revolution like this before. The factories of the industrial age built much of this country, but they also put children to work on machines that killed and maimed them. They dumped waste in our rivers and poisoned our land. It took decades of laws to deal with that damage. This time we shouldn’t wait to write the rules. Our natural resources are what make the Black Hills and South Dakota a special place. The decisions we make now impact all of us, and we need to do everything in our power to protect our home for my daughter’s generation and every one that follows.
This year the Legislature passed the Data Center Bill of Rights for Citizens. It makes data centers with a peak demand of ten megawatts or more pay the electric costs they cause, even if they leave. It protects a town’s or county’s right to regulate them or ban them, and it makes them report their water use.
That law covers the buildings and the utilities, but we also need rules for what the technology inside them can do to people. I’ve worked in tech in Rapid City since 2019, and I use these tools in my work, so I know their pitfalls, as well as their potential. Pierre is already writing rules for AI. I want someone at that table who knows how the technology works before the lobbyists show up to explain it. The ten planks below cover both, and they’re my starting point for discussion in the Legislature.
West River water is scarce. In August, with less water flowing into Pactola, Rapid City extended its watering restrictions year-round. A data center project that would drain our aquifers doesn’t belong here. And whenever a center is approved, it should pay the full cost of the power and water it uses, including the cost of leaving. Today’s law does that for electricity at the biggest centers. I believe water should get the same treatment, and it should be applied to smaller facilities too. Nobody’s cost of living should go up so a data center can be built.
The state should set one strong floor so no city or county gets played by a company holding a windfall in one hand and an NDA in the other. Classify data centers as heavy industry, with a public hearing, required distance from homes, and noise limits. Their diesel generators and wastewater should be held to clean-air and clean-water limits, and an independent lab should check the numbers. The companies need to pay the bill and post the findings publicly. Local governments that want tougher rules, or no data centers at all, should retain the right to make those calls.
I will not hand public money to big corporations, and that includes data center tax breaks. Any deal these companies make with our utilities or local governments should be transparent from start to finish. When a data center shuts down, a cleanup bond paid up front should cover tearing it down and restoring the land.
License plate cameras like Flock record when and where your vehicle passes, keep those records, and can share them with other agencies. South Dakota has no law written for them. Police should need a warrant to search that data. It should be deleted fast, and it shouldn’t leave the state unless a judge signs off. South Dakota should require every search of a license plate database or other police system to be logged with a case number and a reason, with a public audit every year.
Outside a few narrow areas like genetic tests and insurance records, South Dakota has no law that stops a company from selling where you go or what it knows about you without asking you first. This year the state Senate voted 28 to 6 to make internet providers get your permission before selling your personal information, and a House committee killed the bill. In the Senate, I will fight to protect your information every single time. I will work with members of both parties in both chambers to ensure these protections are passed.
Stores are putting in digital shelf tags that can change prices in seconds, and some companies sell tools that set prices for each shopper based on personal data. If a store uses your personal information to set your price, that should be clearly stated. Businesses should also show you the lowest price they’re offering anyone for that item right now and let you decide if you want to pay the higher price they offer you.
In 2024 South Dakota made AI-generated child sexual abuse material a crime. But there is still real work to be done to protect our kids. Too often, these sensitive images, real and fake, are used to pressure someone into sending more images or money. Using these images as a threat against someone should be its own felony too. Additionally, AI chatbots that children use need a crisis protocol, a clear notice that the child is talking to a machine, and a block on sexual content for minors.
Scammers are faking voices to steal from people. Cloning a family member’s voice to drain a grandmother’s savings should carry its own charge, with a tougher sentence when the victim is a senior or an adult with a disability. This year South Dakota made it a felony to create or share fake nude or sexual images of a real person without their consent to harass or harm them. The people targeted should also have a clear right to sue for the damage, including their legal fees. A court should be able to order whoever made the images to take them down and stop sharing them.
When an insurance company denies your care as not medically necessary, a doctor should review your own record and sign the denial. Before anyone loses Medicaid under the work requirements that start in January 2027, a person should check the decision. If an employer or landlord uses AI to screen your application, they should tell you, and a person should make the final call.
A public official who uses these systems to stalk someone or snoop on a neighbor should face a felony charge and lose the office. The person they hurt should be able to file a lawsuit for the harm done to them by someone in that position of power. If anyone knowingly passes off AI-faked video, audio, or pictures as real evidence in court, it should be as serious a felony as witness tampering. If it’s a police officer or prosecutor, their badge or law license should be at risk, and every case they worked on should be reviewed.
Rules like these protect people, and they also make room for the good this technology can do. Used well, AI can explain the fine print before you sign, give people with disabilities more independence, and help a person with limited means start a business. The Black Hills will be here long after today’s data centers are obsolete. The land, the water, and the people should outlast this industry, and the rules we write now should guarantee that they do. We learned that lesson the hard way with the factories. We don’t have to learn it twice.