The president of the US, Joe Biden, has signed an executive order prohibiting the broad transfer of individuals’ personal data to certain countries.
“Provides protection around other activities that may allow those countries to access American’sensitive data,’” the White House said, elaborating on the Executive Order.
This encompasses a wide range of sensitive information, including genetic and biometric data, health records, financial records, geolocation details, and more.
The United States government is concerned that bad actors may steal this data, use it to keep tabs on its citizens, or sell it to foreign intelligence agencies for espionage, fraud, or other invasions of privacy.
The government has warned that private companies and data brokers may sell this information to nations or groups that are a threat to them, or that it could fall into the hands of foreign intelligence agencies, armies, or governmental organizations.
In November 2023, researchers from Duke University found out that for as little as $0.12 per record, someone can easily “obtain sensitive data about active-duty members of the military, their families, and veterans, including non-public, individually identified, and sensitive data, such as health data, financial data, and information about religious practices” from data brokers.
According to the statement, there are concerns about the potential hazards to national security, privacy, intelligence, and international security associated with the pricing of such data.
According to the governments, the countries have a “track record of collecting and misusing statistics on Americans.” The United States Department of Justice lists several countries that fit this description, including China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela.
To prevent unauthorized access to sensitive personal and government data, as well as to set high-security requirements to limit data access through industrial partnerships, the Executive Order mandates that federal agencies publish regulations outlining specific guidelines for doing so.
In addition, the purchase requires the HHS, DOD, and VA to implement measures to stop the misuse of federal grants, contracts, and awards that might lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data.
The government’s choice to limit personal data transfers to certain countries, like China, is a bad idea, according to Senator Ron Wyden, who also said that the idea that the US government can’t buy Americans’ data is false.
U.S. citizens should not entrust their personal information to authoritarian regimes like the United States of America or the United Arab Emirates because such countries lack adequate privacy protections to avoid selling their citizens’ data to China and because such governments are prone to using such data to smear Americans and target American dissidents.
After discovering last year that Sandvine’s middleboxes were used to transfer malware to a former Egyptian lawmaker, the United States put Chengdu Beizhan Electronics of China and the Canadian community intelligence agency on its Object List.
Furthermore, in September 2023, Bloomberg reported that the Egyptian and Belarusian governments have utilized Sandvine’s techniques to evaluate material on the internet.
The ability to Subsequently, it was asserted that Sandvine’s internet-blocking technologies facilitated human rights violations; these systems are utilized by repressive regimes worldwide, including those of Azerbaijan, Jordan, Russia, Turkey, and the US. Regarding its “directly” contributing factor to Belarus’s 2020 internet ban, A. E.
According to the US Department of State’s explanation for adding the company to the list of businesses with restrictions, “Sandvine supplies deep packet inspection tools, which have been used in mass web- monitoring and censorship to prevent news as well as in targeting social actors and human rights activists.” “This technology has been abused to smuggle business ransomware into the hands of skeptics who allegedly criticize and dissident.”
