United States Gov Restricts Sales of Americans’ Personal Data to China & Other Geopolitical Foes
Jose Nino
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On February 28, 2024, President Joe Biden restricted the sale of several categories of sensitive United States data to China and other geopolitical rivals in an attempt to halt the covert flow of vast amounts of Americans’ personal information to countries abroad
Biden regime officials stated that this measure has the aim of addressing potential vulnerabilities in car sensors, mobile apps, smartwatches, and other digital devices that could be exploited by foreign adversaries. Foreign spy agencies can repurpose this data as a way to gather intelligence.
Biden regime officials claimed that the Chinese and Russian governments are leveraging data to back blackmail, espionage, and hacking operations.
“Even as the U.S. government blocks illicit backchannel activity like computer hacking, our current policies and laws leave open access to vast amounts of Americans’ sensitive personal data,” a senior Biden regime official said at a press conference on February 27. “Buying data through data brokers is currently legal in the United States, and that reflects a gap in our national security tool kit that we’re working to fill.”
Under this new executive order, certain categories of Americans’ sensitive data, which included genomic, biometric, personal health, geolocation, financial and certain types of personal identifiers, will generally be banned from being sold or transferred in vast amounts to “‘countries of concern’ or vendors known to supply data to them”, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The countries cited as adversarial actors in this executive order are China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela, who all allegedly have a record of abusing data on Americans.
The US should be taking measures to foster more autonomy in economic affairs. This will consist of protecting industries with tariffs, fostering more domestic production of certain goods and services, decoupling trade with countries with sketchy business practices, and bolstering the country’s trade secret practices.
These are better measures than the hawkish policy prescriptions being put forward by the ruling class these days.
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