The order is Washington’s latest move to stem the flow of U.S. data to China. (document)
Washington:
President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday unveiled an executive order aimed at protecting U.S. personal data by restricting transfers to China, Russia and other countries due to national security concerns, senior U.S. officials said.
Officials said the order, first reported by Reuters, would restrict data brokers and others from bulk transfers of Americans’ geolocation, biometric, health and financial information to certain “countries of concern.”
It would also prohibit the transfer of any data about U.S. government personnel to those countries, which also include Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela, they added.
Officials said “China and Russia are purchasing sensitive U.S. personal data from data brokers” and using the data “to engage in a variety of nefarious activities, including malicious cyber activity, espionage and extortion.”
“The purchase of data through data brokers is currently legal in the United States. It reflects a gap in our national security toolkit,” they added. Wednesday’s order was intended to fill that gap, they said.
The order is the latest move by Washington to block the flow of U.S. data to China, which is locked in a years-long trade and technology war with the United States.
The U.S. Congress is considering legislation to ban federal agencies from signing contracts with China’s BGI Group and WuXi AppTec to prevent China from obtaining U.S. genetic data and personal health information.
In 2018, a U.S. panel that reviews foreign investments for potential national security threats rejected China’s Ant Financial’s plan to acquire U.S. money transfer company MoneyGram International because the companies could not alleviate concerns about the security of data that could be used to identify U.S. citizens. .
Officials said Wednesday that transactions with data brokers who know the information will end up in “relevant countries” will be banned, as will all genomic data transfers.
Transfers of other categories of data, from biometrics to financials, will only be banned if they reach a certain volume threshold and are sent to those countries, an official said.
They added that certain types of data, including business wages and compliance, were exempted to allay concerns that the new rules would unnecessarily hinder economic activity.
Certain transactions such as cloud services, employment and investment agreements will also be allowed, subject to some security requirements such as encryption and anonymity.
The order also directs the Justice Department to give industry a full opportunity to comment on the proposals before they take effect.
The White House says companies are collecting data on more Americans than ever before. This data is often sold and resold legally through data brokers, who can then transfer it to foreign intelligence services, militaries or companies controlled by foreign governments.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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