Democratic Gubernatorial Frontrunner Francesca Hong Announces FIREWALL: A Four-Part Plan to Protect Wisconsinites’ Rights in an AI World

MADISON, Wis. — Francesca Hong, Democratic candidate for governor, today announced FIREWALL, a four-part policy framework to protect Wisconsin consumers and citizens from the unchecked use of artificial intelligence by corporations, landlords, insurance companies, and law enforcement.

Corporations are already using AI to charge different customers different prices for the same products at the same time. A Consumer Reports investigation found that Instacart’s algorithmic pricing experiments could produce price differences as high as 23 percent on identical items, a practice that could cost a typical family more than $1,200 a year at checkout. Rent-setting software like RealPage, the subject of a federal antitrust case settled in 2025, allegedly helped landlords coordinate rent increases using confidential, real-time market data.

The stakes get higher from there. Health insurers are increasingly using algorithms to deny claims at speeds no human review could match. And AI-powered surveillance tools like Flock’s license plate cameras have spread to more than 200 Wisconsin law enforcement agencies, often without public debate, and there are already documented cases of officers misusing them.

“Technology should make people’s lives safer, easier, and more affordable. But without rules and accountability, we’re giving powerful people new ways to exploit working people,” Hong said. “As governor, I’ll make sure Wisconsin writes the rules before Big Tech and corporate lobbyists write them for us.”

FIREWALL’s four pillars:

• REMOVE FROM CART: Getting AI out of your wallet. Bans surveillance pricing across all sectors of Wisconsin’s economy, permanently prohibits algorithmic rent collusion, and requires a human being to independently justify and document any healthcare claim denial.
• INCOGNITO MODE: AI and privacy. Extends HIPAA-level protection to all personal health data, closing the loophole that leaves medical information unprotected when it’s held by chatbots, apps, and wearable devices rather than hospitals and clinics.
• BATTLE BOTS: AI, social media, and scams. Requires clear, embedded disclaimers on AI-generated images, video, and audio, and requires companion chatbots to identify themselves as AI, refer users in crisis to real help, and stop using manipulative design to drive compulsive use.
• PRIME DIRECTIVE: AI and law enforcement. Bans the highest-risk police surveillance AI — including live facial recognition in public spaces, individual-level risk scoring in pretrial detention and sentencing, and AI-powered camera networks like Flock — and requires that any algorithm used in a Wisconsin prosecution be disclosed to the defense, with no trade-secret exemptions.

Wisconsin would join a growing bipartisan movement of states writing rules for AI. Maryland enacted the nation’s first ban on surveillance pricing in grocery stores in April. Washington State extended privacy protections to consumer health data beyond HIPAA, enforceable both by the Attorney General and by individuals in court. California’s first-in-the-nation companion chatbot safety law took effect January 1.

FIREWALL is the third pillar of Hong’s technology platform, joining CONTROL-ALT-DELETE, her plan to regulate AI data centers and protect ratepayers from rising utility costs, and LABOR SHIFT, her blueprint for protecting workers’ rights in the AI age. Together, this trio of policies is the most comprehensive AI policy platform of any candidate for governor.

The full FIREWALL plan is available at francescahong.com/policy/firewall/

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.

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