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The White House is looking to cut off foreign adversaries from the flow of Americans’ personal data.
On Wednesday, the Biden Administration announced an executive order to protect Americans from foreign actors exploiting their personal data. The executive order “authorizes the Attorney General to prevent the large-scale transfer of Americans’ personal data to countries of concern. The countries of concern are China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela.
The executive order is specifically targeting data brokerage, a practice that is shockingly unregulated. There is no federal law that oversees the collection of and sale of the most intimate details of our lives. And when data is sold to countries of concern, it can become a national security issue.
“The sale of Americans’ data raises significant privacy, counterintelligence, blackmail risks and other national security risks—especially for those in the military or national security community,” said the press briefing, before adding groups like academics, activists, journalists, political figures, etc. are potential targets with access to their personal information.
Through the Department of Justice, the executive order will prohibit data transactions of specific data to countries of concern. So, selling data to data brokers knowing it will end up in those countries or to companies based in those countries, according to a senior DOJ official. The types of data prohibited include genomic, biometric, geolocations, personal health, personal finance, personal identifiable information, and sensitive government data.
The executive order will also limit, but not prohibit, data transactions for commercial purposes including investment, vendor, and employment information.
If you’re thinking about a certain social media company that’s been accused of giving its user data to China, the executive order may not have such a big impact on TikTok. According to its privacy policy, it does not buy data from third party brokers. It does say it may use data “shared” with the company by advertisers and other partners, although how its shared remains unclear. But TikTok has its own ways of gathering data about you without third parties anyway.
While the executive order was announced today, there are several steps before it goes into action. There will be two rounds of gathering input from stakeholders, including tech companies and privacy advocates before the proposed rule is finalized. Now, if the White House will only address data brokers within the U.S.
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An announced executive order bans the transfer of Americans’ personal data to countries of concern. Here’s what that looks like.
