Biden to crack down on US data flows to China, Russia

BGI AD

28/02/2024 10:00

By Alexandra Alper and Kanishka Singh
       WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's
administration on Wednesday unveiled an executive order aimed at
protecting American personal data by restricting its transfer to
China, Russia and other countries, senior U.S. officials said,
citing national security concerns.
    The order, first reported by Reuters, will curb bulk
transfers of Americans' geolocation, biometric, health and 
financial information by data brokers and others to specific
"countries of concern," the officials said.
    It will also bar the transfer of any volume of data on U.S.
government personnel, they added, to such countries, which also
include Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.
    "China and Russia are buying American sensitive personal
data from data brokers" and leveraging it "to engage in a
variety of nefarious activities including malicious
cyber-enabled activities, espionage and blackmail," the
officials said.
    "Buying data through data brokers is currently legal in the
United States. That reflects a gap in our national security
toolkit," they added, saying Wednesday's order aimed to fill
that gap.
        The order is the latest bid by Washington to stem the
flow of American 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 contracting with China's BGI Group and Wuxi
APPTEC, part of an effort to keep China from accessing American
genetic data and personal health information.
    In 2018, a U.S. panel that reviews foreign investments for
potential national security threats rejected a plan by China's
Ant Financial to acquire U.S. money transfer company MoneyGram
International because the companies could not assuage concerns
over the safety of data that can be used to identify U.S.
citizens.
    The officials said on Wednesday that transactions with data
brokers who know that the information will end up in "countries
of concern" will be banned, as will all genomic data transfers. 
  
    Transfers of other classes of data - from biometric to
financial - would only be banned if they met certain volume
thresholds and were being sent to those countries, one official
said.
    To allay concerns that the new rules would unnecessarily
hamper economic activity, certain types of data including
corporate payroll and compliance are exempted, they added. 
    Certain transactions such as cloud service, employment and
investment agreements would also be permitted, subject to some
security requirements such as encryption and anonymization.
    The order also directs the Department of Justice to give
industry ample opportunity to comment on proposals before they
go into effect.
    The White House says companies are collecting more of
Americans' data than ever before. That data is often legally
sold and resold through data brokers who can then transfer it to
foreign intelligence services, militaries, or companies
controlled by foreign governments.

 (Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Kanishka Singh; editing by
Chris Sanders and Richard Chang)
 ((Alexandra.Alper@thomsonreuters.com; +1(202)354-5865; Reuters
Messaging: alexandra.alper.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net - https://twitter.com/alexalper?lang=en))