President Biden has recently signed an executive order to prevent countries, including China, North Korea, and Russia, from buying sensitive American personal data from data brokers. The order will launch a rulemaking process to create a “data security program” that restricts the sale of things like personal identifiers and location data; it will require data brokers to get assurances from foreign buyers prior to purchase. However, it may have limited effectiveness since it doesn’t seem to restrict sales to most countries. Privacy advocates argue the US government shouldn’t buy location data either, but the Biden administration has opposed efforts to ban such purchases, saying government use is different. Given the US government itself suffers frequent cyberattacks and data breaches, it raises questions about its own ability to secure sensitive personal data.
