WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is signing an executive order aimed at better protecting Americans’ personal data on everything from biometrics and health records to finances and geolocation from foreign adversaries like China and Russia.

According to senior officials in the Biden administration, the recent decision gives the Department of Justice and other federal entities the ability to hinder the mass transfer of personal information of Americans to countries classified as “countries of concern” by the White House. The intention is to achieve this goal without impeding lawful data-related transactions, as stated in a press call with reporters.

The action by Biden focuses on data brokers in the commercial sphere, which are often mysterious companies that deal in individuals’ personal data. Officials claim that these brokers may sell this information to foreign enemies or U.S. entities tied to those nations.

The senior officials stated that even though most enforcement methods still have to go through lengthy and complex rulemaking procedures, the administration aims to eventually restrict foreign companies and foreign-controlled companies operating in the U.S. from obtaining sensitive data in an improper manner.

In the U.S., it is permissible for data brokers to accumulate and organize personal data with the intention of producing profiles on a large number of Americans. These profiles are then leased or sold by the brokers.

The authorities stated that actions such as computer hacking are currently banned in the United States. However, it is legal to purchase potentially sensitive information through brokers. This reveals a significant loophole in the country’s national security measures, as the data can be sold to a broker who may pass it on to an enemy. The administration plans to address this issue with the implementation of an executive order by the president.

“We condemn the potential use of this data by malicious individuals to monitor American citizens, especially those in the military, invade their personal space, and share it with other data vendors and foreign intelligence agencies,” stated the White House in a published statement. It was added that this data could facilitate unwarranted surveillance, fraudulent activity, extortion, and infringement of privacy.

The directive commands the Department of Justice to create rules that safeguard Americans’ confidential personal information and government-related data. This includes geolocation data for sensitive government locations and military personnel.

The Department of Justice will collaborate with Homeland Security to establish safety measures that will protect against foreign enemies obtaining data. They will also improve procedures to verify that grants given to different government agencies, such as the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs, are not being used to share sensitive information with foreign adversaries or with American companies aligned with them.

The senior administration officials said they were concerned about China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. But it is China — and TikTok, which has over 150 million American users and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd. — that U.S. leaders have been most vocal about.

When questioned on Wednesday about the possibility of sensitive data being trafficked through TikTok, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre expressed concerns by stating, “We are indeed concerned – which is why we issued the executive order.” However, she clarified that it does not specifically target any single company.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, recently noted, “There’s no such thing as a private business in China.”

The high-ranking members of the administration emphasized that the actions taken by the executive branch were intended to complement legislative measures. Despite this, multiple proposed bills aimed at creating federal privacy safeguards have not been successful in moving forward in Congress. Jean-Pierre stated that the administration would prefer to see Congress enact additional protections, but did not disclose any details about what those protections may entail or when they could be passed.

Albert Fox Cahn, a Harvard fellow and executive director of the nonprofit Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said the order doesn’t address the core issue of Americans’ exposure to rampant data collection by industry and government — and the absence of a federal privacy law.

“The main surveillance worry for many Americans is within their own country, specifically the U.S. Individuals are constantly monitored by a growing network of private data brokers and government entities, leading to the use of our digital activities for both advertising and law enforcement purposes,” stated the speaker.

The given executive order does not effectively address the true privacy concerns of most Americans and wrongly equates surveillance capitalism with foreign surveillance. The idea that privacy is a threat from outside our borders, rather than a concern for our own domestic businesses, is a misconception that is prevalent only in Washington. According to the speaker, none of these measures can act as a replacement for the much-needed protections for civil rights and privacy that the general public is in dire need of.

Wolfie Christl, a privacy researcher based in Vienna, deemed the executive order a positive initial action that could potentially compel various companies involved in data collection and trafficking to reevaluate their processes at a core level. Failure to do so could result in an inability to meet the compliance requirements.

According to him, the executive order could potentially address certain urgent concerns surrounding national security in the United States. However, it fails to address several other issues.

Source: wral.com