This week, U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., introduced the “U.S. Data on U.S. Soil Act,” which she insisted will “protect the data security of Americans from being collected and exploited by our foreign adversaries.”
Luna’s office offered some of the reasons for the bill.
“It’s no secret that adversarial countries around the world collect and exploit the personal data of United States citizens, posing untold harms to Americans of all ages and threatening our national security,” the congresswoman’s office noted. “In March, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce explored the role that social media, specifically TikTok, plays in data collection. Most concerning is the Chinese Communist Party’s access to the data of Americans who use TikTok through the company’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance.
“The practices of TikTok and other social media companies have motivated other nations around the world to protect citizens from data collection. The European Union (EU), for example, passed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to protect the people of the EU,” Luna’s office added.
“Americans daily face the threat of exposing their personal data to bad-actor countries who are looking for a chance to exploit us, simply by opening our phones,” Luna said. “The protections in my bill are long overdue. A military leader would never hand over his tactics and intelligence to the enemy on a silver platter, and neither should we. My bill would make sure our adversaries can’t have a free-for-all with our personal lives, national security, and strength as a country.”
Luna’s bill was sent to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee and has the support of three Republican co-sponsors, including U.S. Rep. George Santos, R-NY. So far, there is no companion bill over in the U.S. Senate.
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