New Biden order would stem flow of Americans’ sensitive data to China

President Biden is expected to issue an order as soon as this week to prevent the bulk flow of Americans’ sensitive data — including genetic information — to hostile foreign countries, prime among them China.

The plan takes aim at a controversial practice that privacy advocates have long criticized as an enabler of mass surveillance, whether in the United States or other countries.

The order is designed to block data brokers and other companies from selling access to large stores of geolocation, genomic and other sensitive, personal information to buyers in “countries of concern” such as China, Russia and Iran, administration officials have told industry and civil society experts. The forthcoming order was first reported by Bloomberg.

Federal officials have for years expressed alarm over the risk that the information bought legally from data brokers or stolen by hackers working for foreign governments could be used to spy on or blackmail high-value targets in the United States, such as lawmakers and military personnel. China, for instance, has been mining Western social media, including Facebook and X, to furnish its security services with information on foreign targets, The Washington Post reported in 2021.

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