BIDEN ACTS TO BETTER PROTECT AMERICANS' PERSONAL DATA SUCH AS HEALTH RECORDS AND FINANCES

President Joe Biden signed an executive order aimed at better protecting Americans’ personal data on everything from biometrics and health records to finances and geo-location from foreign adversaries like China and Russia.

The attorney general and other federal agencies are to prevent the large-scale transfer of Americans’ personal data to what the White House calls “countries of concern,” while erecting safeguards around other activities that can give those countries access to people’s sensitive data. 

The goal is to do so without limiting legitimate commerce around data, senior Biden administration officials said on a call with reporters.

Biden’s move targets commercial data brokers, the sometimes shadowy companies that traffic in personal data and that officials say may sell information to foreign adversaries or U.S. entities controlled by those countries.

Most eventual enforcement mechanisms still have to clear complicated and often monthslong rulemaking processes. Still, the administration hopes eventually to limit foreign entities, as well as foreign-controlled companies operating in the U.S., that might otherwise improperly collect sensitive data, the senior officials said.

Data brokers are legal in the U.S. and collect and categorize personal information, usually to build profiles on millions of Americans that the brokers then rent or sell.