data broker

The U.S. House passed a bill that would ban third-party data brokers from selling the user data of Americans to geopolitical adversaries like China and Russia. And while it still needs to pass the Senate to become law, it’s a step in the right direction as recent headlines mostly focus on a potential ban on TikTok in the U.S.Mourning the Loss of Addison Rae’s Debut Album | The Meme MachineThe Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act, H.R. 7520, passed unanimously on Wednesday, 414-0, and would ban data…

The House of Representatives a measure targeting data brokers’ ability to sell Americans’ personal data to “adversary” countries, like Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. The Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act passed with a unanimous 414 - 0 vote.The , which was introduced alongside a measure that could force a ban or sale of TikTok, would prohibit data brokers from selling Americans’ “sensitive” data to people or entities in “adversary” countries. Much like a recent from President Joe Biden…

President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that aims to limit the mass-sale of Americans’ personal data to “countries of concern,” including Russia and China. The order specifically targets the bulk sale of geolocation, genomic, financial, biometric, health and other personally identifying information.During a briefing with reporters, a senior administration official said that the sale of such data to these countries poses a national security risk. “Our current policies and laws leave open access to vast amounts of…

Mozilla is rolling out a tool that can automatically monitor data brokers for your personal information and scrub any of your exposed details from them. Mozilla Monitor Plus expands on the Mozilla Monitor (formerly Firefox Monitor) service, which lets you know when your email address is included in a data breach.This new paid service, which costs $9 per month or $107.88 per year, aims to proactively make sure your personal information stays off more than 190 data broker sites. Mozilla says that's double the number of data…

The National Security Agency (NSA) is purchasing Americans’ internet records, according to government documents made public on Friday. U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, wrote a letter claiming the NSA goes through backchannel avenues to purchase your browsing records and location data, which government agencies typically require a search warrant to obtain.Alex Winter on the Most Important Modern Horror Movie “The U.S. government should not be funding and legitimizing a shady industry whose flagrant…

The director has confirmed that the agency buys Americans’ web browsing data from brokers without first obtaining warrants. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) blocked the appointment of the NSA’s inbound director Timothy Haugh until the agency answered his questions regarding its collection of Americans’ location and Internet data. Wyden said he’d been trying for three years to “publicly release the fact that the NSA is purchasing Americans’ internet records.”In , current NSA Director Paul Nakasone confirmed to Wyden that the…

In what would be a legislative first for the country, a proposed law in Massachusetts promises to put a dent in the data brokerage industry by banning the sale of cellular location data. Suffice it to say, it would be really awesome if the bill passes.Teyonah Parris and John Boyega on Working With Jamie Foxx | io9 InterviewCurrently, data brokers can and do sell your cellular location data to whomever they wish. Firms often claimthis data is anonymized but it can easily be de-anonymized and there are firms that…

A federal judge in Idaho on Thursday dismissed the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit against Kochava Inc alleging that the data broker unfairly sold geolocation data but gave the regulator an opportunity to revise its case.In a 35-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Winmill granted a motion the Idaho-based company filed in October by ruling the FTC complaint lacks sufficient allegations to state a claim. The FTC failed to allege Kochava's data sales created "significant risk" of concrete harm, order said,…