Exclusive-Biden eyes new ways to bar China from scooping up U.S. data

By Alexandra Alper and Karen Freifeld

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Biden administration has drafted an government order that may give the Division of Justice huge powers to cease overseas adversaries like China accessing Individuals’ private knowledge, in response to an individual aware of the matter and excerpts seen by Reuters.

The proposal, which is being reviewed by authorities companies, would additionally direct the Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS) to forestall federal funding from supporting the switch of U.S. well being knowledge to overseas adversaries, in response to the excerpts.

The draft order displays an effort by the administration to reply extra aggressively to nationwide safety threats allegedly posed by Chinese language corporations that purchase reams of U.S. private knowledge, after failed bids by the Trump administration to bar Individuals from utilizing fashionable social media platforms TikTok and Wechat.

Former President Donald Trump tried to ban the apps in 2020 alleging knowledge collected by them could possibly be given to Beijing and used to trace customers and censor content material. China and the apps have denied any improper use of U.S. knowledge.

However the courts halted implementation of the bans and U.S. President Joe Biden finally revoked them.

Spokespeople for the White Home, the Division of Justice and the Commerce Division declined to remark. HHS didn’t reply to requests for remark.

The doc is an preliminary draft that doesn’t embody enter from authorities companies and will change, in response to one other individual aware of the matter.

“What’s clear is the Biden administration is grappling with how you can handle this new danger frontier within the U.S.-China relationship, which is the Chinese language authorities’s entry to Individuals’delicate knowledge,” mentioned Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at Yale Regulation College’s Paul Tsai China Heart, who examines info and communications insurance policies.

If applied, the draft order would grant U.S. Lawyer Normal Merrick Garland the authority to evaluation and doubtlessly bar business transactions involving the sale of or entry to knowledge in the event that they pose an undue danger to nationwide safety, one of many individuals mentioned.

The proposal would additionally instruct HHS to get began on writing a rule “to make sure that federal help, resembling grants and awards, just isn’t supporting the switch of U.S. individuals’ well being, health-related or organic knowledge…to entities owned by, managed by, or topic to the jurisdiction or route of overseas adversaries,” in response to an excerpt.

U.S. intelligence has warned concerning the dangers posed by Chinese language corporations amassing Individuals’ private knowledge by investing in U.S. companies that deal with delicate healthcare info. China’s BGI bought U.S. genomic sequencing agency Full Genomics in 2013 and in 2015, Chinese language WuXi Pharma Tech acquired U.S. agency NextCODE Well being, the Nationwide Counterintelligence and Safety Heart famous in a 2021 truth sheet https://www.dni.gov/information/NCSC/paperwork/SafeguardingOurFuture/NCSC_China_Genomics_Fact_Sheet_2021revision20210203.pdf.

The draft order comes as administration officers have grown annoyed with the Commerce Division over delays in rolling out guidelines and investigating threats below comparable powers granted to that division by Trump in 2019, in response to three individuals aware of the method.

These powers enable the Commerce Division to ban or prohibit transactions between U.S. companies and web, telecom and tech corporations from “overseas adversary” nations, together with Russia and China.

However up to now, the division has did not publish long-awaited guidelines fleshing out a protected harbor course of for corporations or announce the outcomes of investigations into companies together with Russia’s Kaspersky and China’s Alibaba, as beforehand reported by Reuters.

The Commerce Division was additionally explicitly directed by a June government order to make use of the brand new instruments to guard Individuals’ delicate knowledge from overseas adversaries by way of transactions involving apps, however has not made public any progress associated to the measure.

The brand new draft order provides the Division of Justice the specific authority to “monitor compliance with and implement any prohibitions, licenses, or mitigation agreements” issued below the prior government orders, “thereby supporting the authority given to the Secretary of Commerce.”

It additionally duties the Secretary of Commerce with establishing which courses of transactions are outright prohibited and that are exempt, one other excerpt reveals.

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Karen Freifeld; Modifying by Chris Sanders and Alistair Bell)