In an attempt to limit blackmail and other harm, he will issue an executive order asking the Justice Department to write rules restricting sales to six countries.
It is still possible that the restricted countries could gain access to data from Americans without buying it. The F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, said in 2020 that if you “are an American adult, it is more likely than not that China has stolen your personal data.” He linked the Chinese military to the 2017 breach of Equifax, the credit rating service, which exposed the personal information of 150 million Americans.
China also places restrictions on American tech companies that operate within its borders and blocks access to sites like Facebook and Google. Meanwhile, Chinese companies holding sensitive data have attracted scrutiny in Washington. The government forced a Chinese company to sell the dating app Grindr and has worried in the past about a Chinese genetics firm, BGI.
Related: The Era of Borderless Data Is Ending - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
