Washington | President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced an executive order aimed at better protecting Americans’ personal data on everything from biometrics and health records to finances and location information from foreign adversaries such as China and Russia. | is signed.
The Attorney General and other federal agencies could block large-scale transfers of U.S. citizens’ personal data to countries the White House calls “countries of concern,” while giving those countries access to people’s sensitive data. Safety measures are to be taken for other activities involving sexual activity.
Biden administration officials said on a call with reporters that the goal is to do so without restricting legitimate commerce over data.
Biden’s move targets commercial data brokers. Commercial data brokers are shadowy companies that officials say buy and sell personal data and potentially sell information to foreign adversaries and U.S. entities controlled by those countries.
Most final enforcement mechanisms still need to clear a complex and sometimes months-long rule-making process. Still, the administration ultimately wants to restrict foreign corporations and foreign-controlled companies operating in the United States that may inappropriately collect sensitive data, officials said.
Data brokers are legal in the United States and typically build profiles of millions of Americans, collecting and cataloging personal information for the broker to rent or sell.
Officials said that although activities such as computer hacking are already prohibited in the United States, it is legal to buy sensitive data through brokers. When data is knowingly sold to brokers that could end up in enemy hands, this can present a significant gap in national security protection, and the administration is currently addressing this issue through presidential executive action. trying to bury the problem.
In a fact sheet announcing the move, the White House said, “Malicious actors can use this data to track Americans, including military members, peer into their private lives, and transfer that data to other data brokers and foreign intelligence agencies.” It can be handed over to.” “This data could enable intrusive surveillance, fraud, blackmail, and other privacy violations.”
The order directs the Department of Justice to issue regulations establishing protections for sensitive personal data of U.S. citizens and sensitive government data, including sensitive government sites and military personnel geolocation information.
The Department of Justice will also work with homeland security officials to develop security standards to prevent data collection by foreign adversaries. Additionally, federal grants paid to various other agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, are not used to facilitate the flow of sensitive data of Americans to foreign adversaries or U.S. companies working with them. I’m planning to try a more appropriate check.
Government officials cited China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela as potential countries of concern. But U.S. leaders are most vocal about China and TikTok, which has more than 150 million U.S. users and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology company ByteDance.
“There is no such thing as private enterprise in China,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., chairman of the House Select Committee on the Communist Party of China, recently.
Government officials emphasized that the executive action is designed to work in conjunction with legislative action. But so far, a number of bills aimed at establishing federal privacy protections have failed to advance in Congress.
Wednesday’s move follows an executive order on artificial intelligence issued by Biden last fall that sought to balance the needs of cutting-edge technology companies with national security and consumer rights.
It aims to direct the way AI is developed so that companies can profit from it without putting public safety at risk, and to ensure that AI is reliable and useful, rather than deceptive and destructive. We created some initial guardrails aimed at ensuring that.
