Republican U.S. Senator Josh Hawley introduced a new bill today aimed at stemming the flow of Americans’ personal data to China and other countries that he said threaten America’s national security.

The bill, called the National Security and Personal Data Protection Act, follows a hearing in which experts revealed that the relationship between some companies and China could be problematic. One such company is Apple Inc., which stores Chinese users’ iCloud accounts in China.

Hawley (pictured) also believes the Chinese-owned video app TikTok could pose a risk to national security if it’s in bed with the Chinese Communist Party. In October this year, TikTok dismissed any kind of nefarious relationship with the Chinese government, while Apple has said it alone handles encryption keys to data stored in China.

Hawley wrote in a summary of the bill that the threat is greater than many people think, stating that if the Communist Party wants, it can demand data stored by American companies in China to be handed over. The legislation, he said, would prevent that from happening in China or in any other “hostile” countries.

“Chinese companies with vast amounts of personal data on Americans are required by Chinese law to provide that data to Chinese intelligence services,” said Hawley. “If your child uses TikTok, there’s a chance the Chinese Communist Party knows where they are, what they look like, what their voices sound like, and what they’re watching. That’s a feature TikTok doesn’t advertise.”

The bill would prohibit American companies from storing data in China or any other countries that might pose a risk to U.S. national security. As for Chinese companies working inside the U.S., the bill would restrict how much data is collected on Americans and not allow data collection for “secondary purposes.”

Hawley also said that as it stands, Chinese companies can merge with American companies that have already amassed a lot of data on the U.S. public. If the bill should pass, such mergers will have to be first approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS.

Photo: Josh Hawley/YouTube