Cortez Masto, Grassley, Luján Push to Protect Americans’ Personal Information from China, Other Foreign Adversaries

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) will reintroduce the Internet Application Integrity and Disclosure (App ID) Act to help protect Americans online. This legislation would require operators of websites and mobile applications to disclose if their applications have been developed, are controlled, or store data within adversarial countries, such as China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.

"While the internet has revolutionized how we live, work, and play every single day, we have to be doing more to protect the privacy of American citizens," said Senator Cortez Masto. "There are millions of websites and apps out there, and my Internet App ID Act is an essential piece of legislation that will help American consumers make informed decisions to protect their data from being controlled or accessed by foreign adversaries."

The Internet App ID Act would help prevent foreign adversaries - like China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea - from being able to utilize apps to store, expose, and transfer the personal data of American citizens without greater transparency. Failure to properly disclose or presenting false information would result in fines from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). To better safeguard Americans' data, the Internet App ID Act would:

• Require anyone that maintains a website or application to disclose whether:
  • An app is owned, wholly or partially, by an adversarial country;
  • An app stores or maintains user data within an adversarial country; or
  • An adversarial country or a government-owned entity has access to user data.
• Allow the FTC to enforce violations of the law.

As the former top law enforcement official in Nevada, Senator Cortez Masto has spent her entire career working keep families and children safe. She has cosponsored the bipartisan EARN IT Act protect children online, and her federal legislation to help train law enforcement to identify and prevent child trafficking and to combat human trafficking activity on social media was signed into law. Cortez Masto's provision to increase the number of mental health professionals in schools was included in the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was signed into law.

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