White House executive order restricting data brokers enters effect — but to what end?

An executive order from President Biden restricting which countries data brokers can sell American data to took effect on Sunday, but some have expressed doubt about whether it will have much impact.

The executive order prohibits data brokers from selling protected data about Americans to various “countries of concern,” which the US defined in December as Burma, People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The order defined protected data as “Americans’ most personal and sensitive information, including genomic data, biometric data, personal health data, geolocation data, financial data, and certain kinds of personally identifiable information.”

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