The White House seeks 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 powers that misuse personal data. The executive order “authorizes the Attorney General to block large-scale transfers of Americans' personal data to countries of concern, including China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela. be.”
The executive order specifically targets data brokering practices that are surprisingly unregulated. There are no federal laws that oversee the collection and sale of the most intimate information about our lives. And if the data is sold to countries of concern, it could become a national security issue.
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“The sale of Americans' data poses significant privacy, counterintelligence, extortion risks, and other national security risks, particularly for those in the military and national security communities,” he said at a press conference, later adding that academics , added groups such as activists, journalists, and politicians. , etc. are potential targets with access to personal information.
The executive order, through the Department of Justice, prohibits data transactions of certain data to countries of concern. As a result, they sell data to data brokers or to companies based in those countries knowing that the data will end up in those countries, according to a senior Justice Department official. Prohibited data types include genomic, biometric, location, personal health, personal finance, personally identifiable information, and sensitive government data.
The executive order also restricts, but does not prohibit, data transactions for commercial purposes, including investment, vendor, and employment information.
If you're thinking about specific social media companies that have been accused of providing user data to China, this executive order may not have much of an impact on TikTok. According to the company's privacy policy, it does not purchase data from third-party brokers. It says it may use data “shared” with it by advertisers and other partners, but it's unclear how that data is shared. But TikTok has its own way of collecting data about you anyway without involving a third party.
The executive order was announced today, but there are several steps before it goes into effect. There will be two rounds of input from stakeholders, including technology companies and privacy advocates, before the proposed rules are finalized.Now, if the White House only deals with data brokers within the United States
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privacy government