Senators Push to Protect Americans’ Personal Information from China, Other Foreign Adversaries

Sens Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) reintroduced the Internet Application Integrity and Disclosure Act (S.3614) to help protect Americans online. This legislation would require operators of websites and mobile applications to disclose if their applications have been developed, are controlled, or store data within adversarial countries, such as China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. The Internet App ID Act would help prevent foreign adversaries—like China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea—from being able to utilize apps to store, expose, and transfer the personal data of American citizens without greater transparency. Failure to properly disclose or presenting false information would result in fines from the Federal Trade Commission. To better safeguard Americans’ data, the Internet App ID Act would:

• Require anyone who maintains a website or application to disclose whether:
  • An app is owned, wholly or partially, by an adversarial country;
  • An app stores or maintains user data within an adversarial country; or
  • An adversarial country or a government-owned entity has access to user data.
• Allow the FTC to enforce violations of the law.