Security News > 2024 > March > Congress votes unanimously to ban brokers selling American data to enemies

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would prohibit data brokers from selling Americans' data to foreign adversaries with an unusual degree of bipartisan support: It passed without a single opposing vote.

The Protecting Americans' Data from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024 was introduced in the house earlier this month alongside the recently-passed TikTok ban bill and gives the Federal Trade Commission authority to go after any data broker that sells PII to North Korea, Russia, China or Iran, or any company controlled by those countries.

"Data brokers then sell billions of data elements on nearly every consumer in the United States, including information about children and active members of the U.S. military," said Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr., the bill's sponsor.

Categories of data covered in the House bill include government-issued identification numbers, financial information, biometric and genetic data, geolocation data, private communications and other sensitive categories.

Aside from Biden's proposal under the EO, no other law currently restricts the sale of data collected by brokers to foreign adversaries.

When asked if there were any known instances of data brokers selling information to adversarial nations mentioned in the House bill, a spokesperson for the House Energy and Commerce Committee who reviewed and marked up the proposal, told us there are not any publicly available examples.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/congress_votes_unanimously_to_ban/