Reps. Davidson, Eshoo Introduce The Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Surveillance Act

Reps. Warren Davidson (R-OH) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) introduced legislation to protect Americans’ data from being exploited by unfriendly foreign nations, and apply tough criminal and civil penalties to prevent employees of foreign corporations like TikTok from accessing US data from abroad. This bill:

• Directs the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with other key agencies, to identify categories of personal data that, if exported, could harm US national security;
• Directs the Secretary of Commerce to compile a list of low-risk countries, where data can be shared without restrictions, a list of high-risk countries where exports of sensitive data will be blocked, and create a system to issue licenses for data exports to nations not on either list. The risk status of countries will be determined based on:
  
  • the adequacy and enforcement of the country’s privacy and export control laws,
  • the circumstances under which the foreign government can compel, coerce, or pay a person in that country to disclose personal data,
  • whether that foreign government has conducted hostile foreign intelligence operations against the US.
• In addition to regulating bulk exports, the bill also regulates all exports of personal data by data brokers and firms like TikTok directly to restricted foreign governments, to parent companies in restricted foreign countries and to persons designated on the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List;
• Exempts from the new export rules data encrypted with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)-approved technology;
• Ensures the export rules do not apply to journalism and other First Amendment protected speech;
• Applies export control penalties to senior executives who knew or should have known that employees below them were directed to illegally export Americans’ personal data.