Margaret Harding McGill for Axios:
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, a prominent big tech critic, will introduce legislation Monday meant to protect Americans’ online data from flowing to China and other countries that raise national security concerns.
Hawley’s bill takes aim Apple and TikTok by prohibiting American companies from storing user data or encryption keys in China, and preventing Chinese companies from collecting more information on American users than necessary to provide service here.
Hawley’s introduction of the National Security and Personal Data Protection Act follows his repeatedly raising concerns about TikTok’s and Apple’s connections to China, including at a hearing this month before the Senate Judiciary crime and terrorism subcommittee.
The proposal comes as the Trump administration continues to fight a tariff war with China while trying to negotiate a trade deal, and members of both parties in Congress are turning up the heat on American tech companies for violations of privacy, accusations of political bias, and monopolistic behavior.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote in February 2018:
Apple should immediately make iCloud an opt-in service, rather than opt-out, for Chinese users.
Chinese users should not use iCloud for any data they wish to keep private.
Exit question: Why can’t Chinese citizens be trusted with freedom?