Ted Cruz Blocks Bill That Would Extend Privacy Protections To All Americans

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has blocked an effort to walk authorities that would person extended information privateness protections for national lawmakers and nationalist officials to everyone successful nan United States.

On Monday night, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked nan U.S. Senate for unanimous consent from chap senators to walk his legislation, S.2850. Wyden’s bill, if passed, would person taken bipartisan-passed provisions designed to protect authorities officials, lawmakers, and their families from having their individual accusation sold aliases traded by information brokers, and widen them to each American and personification surviving successful nan United States.

“Members of Congress should not person typical treatment,” Wyden said connected nan Senate floor. “Our constituents merit protection from violence, stalking, and different criminal threats.”

“Protecting everyone is nan astir effective measurement to protect U.S. subject and intelligence personnel, including undercover officers,” Wyden added, per the legislature record.

Cruz was nan sole objecting senator, who claimed without grounds that Wyden’s measure could disrupt rule enforcement, “such arsenic knowing wherever intersexual predators are living.”

Data brokers are portion of a worldwide multibillion-dollar manufacture of companies that profit from hoarding and trading entree to immense amounts of Americans’ personal, financial, and granular location information, often collected from phones and different devices connected to nan internet. This information gets sold, including to governments, who don’t request a warrant for commercially obtainable data.

The postulation of immense banks of information besides comes pinch its ain risks, including security lapses and data breaches. Information bought by information brokers has been utilized to dox people, and successful caller cases linked to nan caller murders of 2 Minnesota authorities lawmakers, whose slayer allegedly obtained their location addresses from information brokers.

Cruz besides objected to a 2nd portion of authorities that Wyden introduced soon after, which would person extended nan protections for national officials and lawmakers to authorities officials and their staff, arsenic good arsenic survivors of home unit and intersexual assault.

In response, Cruz said that he was “interested successful expanding nan protection to arsenic wide a beingness arsenic is feasible, arsenic is practicable, but that reply is not yet worked out.”