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US President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that aims to prohibit the sale of sensitive personal data about Americans to China and other adversarial nations. The order specifically targets the mass collection and trading of data by brokers that could be used to train artificial intelligence systems and pose national security risks.
“The unregulated sale of huge troves of data about Americans, including personal health information, geolocation data, and financial records, to foreign powers poses serious risks,” Biden said during remarks about the executive order.”We must act now to prevent our strategic competitors like China from amassing Americans’ most sensitive data and exploiting it to undermine our economic and national security.”
The executive order directs the Department of Justice to draft regulations that will heavily restrict or outright ban data brokers and tech companies from selling certain categories of sensitive data to entities linked to China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. This includes genomic data, biometric information, health records, geolocation patterns, financial account data, and other personally identifiable information.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, emphasised the importance of data for AI development and China’s ambitions to surpass the U.S. in advanced technologies. “In warfare, data is decisive. It fuels artificial intelligence and machine learning. China is determined to dominate AI and has stated its goal of surpassing the U.S. by 2030,” Milley said. “We cannot allow Beijing to gain asymmetric advantages by buying or stealing massive amounts of data about Americans that can be used to perfect facial recognition, predictive analytics and other AI capabilities.”
Privacy advocates praised the US President Biden’s executive order restricting the sale of sensitive personal data to China and other adversaries deemed it as an important first step in regulating unchecked data brokers. However, some associations warned that overly broad data transfer limitations could hamper international business activities and scientific research that depend on cross-border data flows.
The executive order calls on the Department of Homeland Security and Director of National Intelligence to provide recommendations within 60 days on additional countries that should face data sale restrictions due to national security risks. It also directs the Federal Communications Commission to weigh data security risks during reviews of undersea cable licences that connect the U.S. to global networks.
Biden urged Congress to build on the executive order by passing comprehensive federal privacy legislation. “This executive action is a vital move to protect America’s national security in the digital age. But it is not sufficient,” Biden said. “I once again call on Congress to pass bipartisan consumer privacy and data security laws to further safeguard the American people.”
“The unregulated sale of huge troves of data about Americans, including personal health information, geolocation data, and financial records, to foreign powers poses serious risks,” Biden said during remarks about the executive order.”We must act now to prevent our strategic competitors like China from amassing Americans’ most sensitive data and exploiting it to undermine our economic and national security.”
The executive order directs the Department of Justice to draft regulations that will heavily restrict or outright ban data brokers and tech companies from selling certain categories of sensitive data to entities linked to China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. This includes genomic data, biometric information, health records, geolocation patterns, financial account data, and other personally identifiable information.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, emphasised the importance of data for AI development and China’s ambitions to surpass the U.S. in advanced technologies. “In warfare, data is decisive. It fuels artificial intelligence and machine learning. China is determined to dominate AI and has stated its goal of surpassing the U.S. by 2030,” Milley said. “We cannot allow Beijing to gain asymmetric advantages by buying or stealing massive amounts of data about Americans that can be used to perfect facial recognition, predictive analytics and other AI capabilities.”
Privacy advocates praised the US President Biden’s executive order restricting the sale of sensitive personal data to China and other adversaries deemed it as an important first step in regulating unchecked data brokers. However, some associations warned that overly broad data transfer limitations could hamper international business activities and scientific research that depend on cross-border data flows.
The executive order calls on the Department of Homeland Security and Director of National Intelligence to provide recommendations within 60 days on additional countries that should face data sale restrictions due to national security risks. It also directs the Federal Communications Commission to weigh data security risks during reviews of undersea cable licences that connect the U.S. to global networks.
Biden urged Congress to build on the executive order by passing comprehensive federal privacy legislation. “This executive action is a vital move to protect America’s national security in the digital age. But it is not sufficient,” Biden said. “I once again call on Congress to pass bipartisan consumer privacy and data security laws to further safeguard the American people.”
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