Republicans have called on the Biden administration to end the government's support of data brokers following a massive hack that exposed the personal information of some 2.9 billion people, including "potentially all Americans."
National Public Data, a data broker that performs background checks, was targeted in a massive hack in April. The group USDoD claimed responsibility for the hack, which exposed Social Security numbers, full names, personal addresses, and other sensitive info.
In a letter to Biden, nine House Republicans said the breach highlights a deeper problem with the government's "subsidization" of mass data collection.
"These payments to data brokers amount to the government’s ongoing subsidization of the data broker industry. Americans should not have to fear bad actors will abuse their hacked data or that their own government will purchase their data, wittingly or not, in circumvention of their civil liberties."
The Republicans urged the administration to end what privacy advocates call the "data broker loophole," which enables the government to purchase Americans' data without a warrant.
Biden "strongly opposed" a bill sponsored by Warren Davidson (R-Oh.), the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, that would have closed the loophole.
"As recently as this year, your administration has instead forcefully opposed overwhelmingly popular and bipartisan privacy protections like the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act. This bill would bar the unconscionable practice of funneling taxpayers’ money to data brokers," the Republicans said.
The letter was signed by Reps. Davidson, Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Randy Weber (R-TX), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Barry Moore (R-AL), and Ben Cline (R-VA).
They asked Biden to address the data breach and commit to ending the government's subsidizing of "data broker surveillance."
"We are especially concerned that this data could enable malicious actors to build a sophisticated dossier on every American that can cross-reference and validate other sensitive personal data obtained from the largely unregulated data broker industry, as well as other past and future data breaches."
"We ask for a swift and comprehensive response from your administration, including acknowledgement of the severe consequences of this breach for our national security — and for the executive branch to finally join us, hundreds of our colleagues, and hundreds of millions of Americans in demanding an end to the federal government’s subsidizing and warrantless exploitation of data broker surveillance,” the lawmakers concluded.
