February 28, 2024 at 05:27AM
President Biden is set to sign an executive order preventing the transfer of Americans’ sensitive data to adversarial countries such as China and Russia. The White House plans to propose regulations prohibiting large data transfers to “countries of concern.” The rule will exempt routine commercial transactions and won’t come into effect immediately. The ultimate enforcement will be carried out by the US Justice Department.
From the meeting notes, the key takeaways are:
1. President Joe Biden is set to sign an executive order aimed at preventing the sale or transfer of Americans’ sensitive personal information and government-related data to adversarial countries, including China and Russia.
2. The White House plans to propose regulations that prohibit companies from transferring certain types of data to “countries of concern,” including China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela. The data includes genomic data, biometric identifiers, precise geolocation data, personal health data, personal financial data, specific personal identifiers, and certain sensitive government-related data.
3. The proposed regulations will go through a formal process, including publication in the Federal Register and public comment periods, before becoming law.
4. Once the regulations become law, they will be enforced by the US Justice Department to address the current gap in US law regarding national security risks posed by access to sensitive personal data through routine commercial transactions.
5. The White House is also concerned about the potential misuse of this data by certain countries for malicious cyber-enabled activities, espionage, influencing groups of people, collecting information on individuals such as activists and journalists, and potentially for intimidation or prosecution.
6. Finally, it’s mentioned that today’s actions are not a substitute for national data privacy legislation, and President Biden continues to urge Congress to pass comprehensive bipartisan privacy legislation.
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