Identity theft is an immediate threat in today’s fast-moving world. Statistically, one’s personal information is more likely to have been stolen than not.1 Courts are mindful of the perils of today’s digital world, where passwords can be compromised, computers can be hacked, and cell phones can be stolen—raising questions about the origins of information. Accordingly, the security and protection of consumer data should receive more attention.

Compared to in-person shopping, commerce online has a striking advantage: convenience. Users can compare business offers by clicking to the next webpage without moving locations and losing time, but convenience online has a flipside: the U.S. dollar is not the only currency that consumers provide to online businesses.

One’s data is equally valuable. Online search engines are free to use, and even though enterprises may offer services for free, awareness of this fact fades during everyday internet use. Most social media platforms do not charge membership fees at all. In fact, the vast majority are free.

Providing personal information allows companies to draw conclusions about our identities beyond names and addresses. Internet users leave digital footprints, providing information about their lives and allowing algorithms to produce clear identity profiles. Once such a profile is produced, identity theft is but a step away.

Every day, hundreds of farmers toil acres of land in the vast, rural landscapes of the Midwest. They spend thousands of dollars to purchase necessary equipment like tractors to cultivate the land. After long periods of use, these tractors malfunction. Instead of doing what farmers for generations have typically done—fixing the equipment themselves—many farmers, some of whom who are already in debt thousands of dollars, spend money at specially- licensed farming equipment dealerships to fix their issues. Often, these dealerships are located miles away, resulting in more expenses. These woes negatively affect farming communities throughout the United States.

The most well-known and popular of the specially licensed farming equipment corporations is John Deere and Co. (“John Deere”), which has united farmers with similarly interested groups such as jailbreakers, hackers, and other technology enthusiasts under the right to repair movement. The goal of this nationwide movement is to allow individuals to own what they buy. If an individual purchases something, then they have the right to use it, modify it, and repair it whenever, wherever, and however they want.

Farmers are some of the fiercest advocates for the right to repair because they value the ability and freedom to fix and repair their own vehicles, tractors, and other farm equipment necessary to maintain their livelihoods without the associated expenses of traveling to specially licensed dealerships such as John Deere. It is under this banner that many farmers have sued John Deere for the right to access the software that runs their tractors and harvesters so they can repair their own equipment.

This article will conduct a comparative review of how intellectual property intersects with the goals and hardships of farmers asserting their right to repair their products as well as how the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), executive and legislative branches have supported or hindered the right to repair movement.