The House of Representatives unanimously pass a bill to defend the personal information of all Americans by outlawing information agents from giving it to international adversaries like China.
HR 7520, also known as the Protecting Americans ‘ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act, passed in a 414–0 ballot, with 18 people never voting.
The places and companies already designated by the Office of the Secretary of Commerce as “foreign opponents” are China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and the Maduro Regime in Venezuela.
Sensitive information includes Social Security numbers, card numbers, and pilot’s license figures. Any information relating to a person’s physical or mental health must also be made clear to information broker.
The legislation especially forbids the transmission of personal information, including text messages and phone calls, as well as genetic and biological data and precise location data.
Additionally, it gives the Federal Trade Commission the authority to impose civil penalties exceeding$ 500,000 per violation.
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The bill strengthens an executive order signed by President Joe Biden on February 28 that “authorizes the Attorney General to prevent the large-scale transfer of Americans ‘ personal data.”
The day before the ballot, Rep. Frank Pallone ( D- N. J. ), ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, made notes on the floor of the House to help the measure.
National specialists are raising the alarm about the state of Beijing, China, and other foreign adversaries ‘ accumulating scads of sensitive information about individuals Americans, which could be used to launch sophisticated control campaigns, engage in espionage, defame Americans, and otherwise harm American interests, he said.
Bill Section a” Essential Step”
” Today’s enormous vote sends a clear message that we will never allow our enemies to sabotage American national security and personal privacy by acquiring people’s personally recognisable sensitive information from data agents,” the statement reads.
” We’re encouraged by today’s strong vote, which should help build momentum to get this important bipartisan legislation, as well as more comprehensive privacy legislation, signed into law this Congress”, they said.
The legislation was made public on March 5 by Ms. Rodgers and M. Pallone. Co- sponsors were Rep. Gus Bilirakis ( R- Fla. ), chairman of the Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee, Rep. Jan Schakowsky ( D- Ill. ), ranking member of the subcommittee, and Reps. Rick Allen ( R- Ga. ) and Lori Trahan ( D- Mass. ).
The Energy and Commerce Committee voted 50 to 0 to approve the measure with their support.
Ms. Schakowsky claimed in a statement on social media following the bill’s passage that people’s private information had been sold and traded without their knowledge for too long.
” I just voted to prevent data brokers from selling American data to adversaries, giving us more privacy online”, she said. ” This is a good step, but we need comprehensive data privacy legislation”.
As a co-sponsor of the bill, Mr. Allen expressed his pride in seeing the bill’s unanimous passage in the House of Representatives this week.
Data brokers sell sensitive information to our foreign adversaries, including China, according to a statement he made via email. The” Protecting Americans ‘ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act” highlights Congress’ unwavering commitment to protecting sensitive data from rogue regimes and bad actors, and I urge my Senate colleagues to move quickly to pass this strong bipartisan bill and send it to President Biden’s desk.
Lawmakers ‘ Waking Up’ to Data Dangers
Asked about the significance of the bill’s unanimous passage in the House, Jake Denton, a research associate in the Tech Policy Center at The Heritage Foundation, said he thinks lawmakers are “waking up to the threat profile” of data.
” The big story here is that this comes on the heels of the TikTok legislation”, he told The Epoch Times, explaining that while the TikTok measure is focused on applications, HR 7520 targets data brokers. He continued,” Data brokers is a sub-industry of the broader tech sector that is dedicated to collecting and screening consumer data and selling it to any party that will pay for it.”
” In many instances, that party is a foreign adversary”, he said.
The fact that the data being sold is n’t always as harmless as an email address and phone number, according to Mr. Denton, is something that most Americans and U.S. lawmakers frequently overlook. In some cases, it can be as intimate as someone’s health records or military discharge records, things that are far more consequential not only for an individual’s personal security but for national security.
” That’s why this bill is critical”, he asserted. ” It stops the flow to those adversary countries”.
He added that passing this bill should be a part of a larger discussion about whether or not collecting personal information about Americans should be done in the first place, let alone for the purpose of selling it to foreign adversaries.
” You ca n’t ignore the connection to the TikTok bill”, he noted, saying,” It follows a similar fact pattern”.
Instead of a foreign application that gathers this data and sends it back home, what’s different about this is that it involves American businesses selling to these foreign adversaries. We have American data brokerage firms that are collecting and distributing all sorts of terrible data to foreign adversaries and allowing them to do whatever they want with it, he said.
Additionally, he claimed that lawmakers are finally beginning to understand that data collection and the transfer of data have significant implications for national security.
” A unanimous vote is something to behold”, he noted,” and hopefully these bills pass]the Senate ] just like the TikTok bill as well”.
