Nine House Republicans on Wednesday urged the Biden-Harris administration to support legislation to end the “warrantless misuse” of “data broker surveillance” in the wake of a hack that exposed the personal information of 2.7 billion people.
Members of the hacking group “US Department of Defense” claimed to have released personal information of 2.7 billion people that was allegedly stolen from major data broker National Public Data, including highly sensitive information such as names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and phone numbers.
9 House Republicans Urged President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are set to sponsor the Fourth Amendment “No Data For Sale Act,” which would stop the “unfair practice” of funneling taxpayer money to data brokers.
The House passed the bill in April despite opposition from the Biden administration.
WATCH: Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) discusses the data broker loophole
U.S. House of Representatives
Lawmakers told Breitbart News that the purchase of Americans' data by intelligence and law enforcement agencies is a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
“The privacy of our constituents as citizens and consumers must be protected,” the House conservatives wrote.
House Republicans argued that the hack of the data broker database could be used to target Americans.
We believe this data can be used by malicious actors. Create an elaborate dossier on every American The system can cross-reference and verify other sensitive personal data obtained from the largely unregulated data broker industry, as well as past and future data breaches, such as the recent theft of genetic data and genealogy from 23andMe and the hacking of security clearance records of government employees held by the Office of Personnel Management. Moreover, this data breach allegedly occurred in April 2024, meaning hackers mined, sold, and otherwise exploited data in the shadows for four months before the American public was widely alerted to the theft. This is unacceptable.
YouGov Poll conducted by FreedomWorks and Demand Progress Consignment It found that 80 percent of Americans support closing the data broker loophole, with only 10 percent opposed.
The letter was signed by Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Warren Davidson (R-OH), Geoff Duncan (R-SC), Randy Weber (R-TX), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Barry Moore (R-AL) and Ben Klein (R-VA), who introduced the bill.
House Republicans called on the Biden-Harris administration to close the data broker loophole.
“We call on the Administration to respond swiftly and comprehensively, including acknowledging the serious national security impact of this breach, and urge the Executive Branch to finally join us, hundreds of our colleagues, and hundreds of millions of Americans in demanding an end to federal subsidies for and warrantless abuse of data broker surveillance,” the lawmakers concluded.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X Sean Moran 3.
