Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) blocked efforts to pass laws that would extend data privacy protections for federal lawmakers and civil servants to everyone in the United States.
On Monday night, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked for unanimous consent from his fellow senators to ask for his law s.2850. Wyden's bill was designed to obtain bipartisan provisions designed to protect government officials, lawmakers and their families, if passed, and to allow personal information to be sold or traded by data brokers to extend to all Americans and people living in the United States.
“Members of Congress should not be treated specially,” Wyden said on the Senate floor. “Our members deserve protection from violence, stalkers and other criminal threats.”
“Protecting everyone is the most effective way to protect the US military and intelligence agents, including undercover agents,” Wyden added, according to Congressional records.
Cruz is the only opposing senator, and he argued that “such as knowing where sexual predators live” without evidence that Wyden's bill could disrupt law enforcement.
Data brokers are part of a global multi-billion dollar industry of companies that benefit from the storage and sales of huge amounts of Americans, financial, and fine-grained location information, often collected from internet-connected phones and other devices. This data is sold including governments that do not require a warrant of commercially available data.
Large data bank collections carry their own risks, such as security revocation and data breaches. The information purchased by the data broker is used by people on DOX, and in recent cases it relates to the recent murder of two Minnesota lawmakers, whose killer allegedly obtained their home address from the data broker.
Cruise also opposed the second law Wyden quickly introduced.
In response, Cruz said, “I am interested in expanding protection into the widest possible universe, as much as possible, but the answer has not yet been resolved.”