President Joe Biden has taken action by signing an executive order to prevent the mass-sale of Americans’ personal data to “countries of concern,” such as Russia and China. The order specifically focuses on restricting the bulk sale of geolocation, genomic, financial, biometric, health, and other personally identifying information.
During a briefing with reporters, a senior administration official emphasized that selling such data to these countries poses a significant national security risk. “Our current policies and laws allow open access to vast amounts of sensitive American personal data,” the official stated. “The legal purchase of data through data brokers in the United States reflects a gap in our national security toolkit, which we are addressing with this program.”
For years, researchers and privacy advocates have cautioned about the national security threats associated with the largely unregulated multibillion-dollar data broker industry. Last autumn, researchers at Duke University issued a report highlighting…
2024-02-28 05:00:29
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