New executive order from Biden on rules for vouchsafing personal data

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to issue an executive order calling for more action to protect people’s data privacy. Of particular focus would be steps designed to prevent foreign adversaries from getting the data.

It also likely will chastise Congress for its unwillingness to produce bipartisan, comprehensive privacy legislation.

The White House has only issued a press release announcing the order. The document itself is not yet viewable online.

Executive orders are not laws and have limited power. They can be revoked unilaterally by the current president or any future president.

Biden’s move is another effort to focus the public’s attention on the threats Americans face and how disruptive it would be to lose control of their biometric, financial demographic, health and even work information.

He is expected to call on the Justice Department to create regulations preventing “countries of concern” from accessing personal data. Those nations – chiefly China, Russia and North Korea – can buy biometrics from illicit sources or quasi-legally through third parties.

The agency also would have to better protect sensitive government-related data including that of military members.

Biden is expected to caution the executive branch of government, which he alone controls, to make the upgrades without impacting the free flow of legitimate data between trading partners, scientists, financial players and others.

Article Topics

biometric data  |  biometric identifiers  |  biometrics  |  data privacy  |  United States