US Lawmakers Craft Bill to Bar Data Flows to ‘High-Risk’ Countries

June 26th, 2022 11:37 AM

A group of United States senators introduced a bill that would allow the president to block exports of data to countries that pose a national security risk.

Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced the bill, Reuters reported.

"Right now it’s perfectly legal for a company in China to buy huge databases of sensitive information from data brokers about the movements or health records of millions of Americans, and then share that information with the Chinese government," Wyden said in a statement.

Rubio added in a statement that "we cannot trust private companies to protect Americans’ private data, especially given how many of them do business in China."

For its part, China denied any wrongdoing. Reuters reported that the Chinese Embassy in the United States claimed that "on the issue of data security, China has been aboveboard, open and cooperative...The Chinese government strictly abides by the principles of the protection of data security, and prohibits and cracks down on illegal activities in accordance with law.”

The Reuters report added that the bill would require the Commerce Department to issue licenses for “bulk exports of the identified categories of personal data to other countries, and deny exports to high-risk countries.” Low-risk countries would be unrestricted. 

Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the CensorTrack contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.