President Joe Biden has signed an executive order directing the Department of Justice to develop regulations to protect biometric, financial, genomic, personal health data and other sensitive personal information of U.S. citizens from access and exploitation by countries of concern.
The EO also requires DOJ to release regulations to improve protection of geolocation data on sensitive government sites, information on military members and other sensitive U.S. government-related data, according to a White House fact sheet published Wednesday.
DOJ should work with the Department of Homeland Security to establish high security standards to prevent countries of concern from accessing U.S. citizens’ data through other commercial means.
Under the new policy, the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services should work together to ensure that federal contracts, grants and awards are not used to facilitate access to sensitive health information of Americans.
The order calls for the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector, also known as Team Telecom, to look at the threats to sensitive personal data of U.S. citizens in its assessment of submarine cable licenses.