Foreign governments can no longer buy sensitive US personal data from brokers

The US Justice Department has made it illegal to sell certain sensitive personal data on Americans to specific foreign countries or people. This means companies that collect and sell data must now check who they are selling to and what kind of data it is.

For years, data brokers have sold vast amounts of personal information on Americans with few restrictions. This rule makes a significant portion of that market illegal. It forces data companies to put up walls between their data and certain buyers, which they have not had to do before.