Washington, D.C. – Foreign investment is one of the legal means that adversaries, like China, can use to collect Americans’ data, exasperating both privacy and national security risks. To counter this, U.S. Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) reintroduced the bipartisan Protecting Sensitive Personal Data Act to expand the authority of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). 

“We must protect the personal data and information of Georgians, Americans, and our governmental agencies from foreign entities that may wish to exploit them,” said Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock. “I’m glad to reach across the aisle and work with Senator Rubio to strengthen our defenses against global adversaries.”

This legislation would allow CFIUS to screen investments that would affect important personal information, such as genetic test results, health conditions, insurance applications, financial hardship data, security clearance information, geolocation data, private emails, data for generating government identification, and credit report information.

Senator Warnock is a dedicated defender of consumers and personal data. Senator Warnock worked with Senator Rubio to originally introduce the Protecting Sensitive Personal Data Ac tin November 2021, and authored bipartisan legislation to require credit bureaus to inform small businesses of a nonpublic personal data breach within 30 days.