Know Your App: Lankford pushes to increase online transparency

May 31—Sen. James Lankford, R-OK, along with two of his other Republican colleagues, introduced the Know Your App Act in an effort to increase transparency.

The bill would require application stores to publicly list the country of origin of the apps that they distribute.

The potential for foreign governments to access user data through Internet-linked applications presents national security risks, including espionage and influence, the bill reads.

Lankford said users have a right to know baseline information on the country of origin so that they can personally make decisions to mitigate threats to their personal and biometric information.

"Seeing 'Made in China' on nearly any product nowadays is frustrating to Oklahomans trying their best not to prop up the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese government with their hard-earned money," Lankford said. "I want the 'Made in China' label and labels for any other countries where apps like TikTok originate to be clearly marked when and where they are downloaded."

As of March, four of the five most popular apps in the United States were developed in China; TikTok, Temu, Capcut and Shein.

TikTok has been under the microscope in the U.S. for several years now for the potential security risk it poses to Americans. Montana became the first state to outright ban the app in mid-May.

Lawmakers have equally criticized online shopping platforms Temu and Shein.

Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC, said families shouldn't fear that their online privacy and security could be compromised when unknowingly using an app that a "foreign adversary" owns.

"Americans should be able to make informed decisions about the online services they use in order to protect their data and security," Scott said. "Requiring app stores to display an app's country of origin is a common-sense solution that can help them do just that."

The Know Your App Act would also require the Department of Treasury and Commerce to produce a list of adversarial governments that may have "undue control" over app content moderation, algorithm design or user data transfers. App stores would be required to provide users the ability to filter out applications from the identified adversarial countries and warn users about the risk of downloading one of the foreign apps on these lists.

If a developer fails to provide sufficient information to the app store about its country affiliation, the app store would be required to issue multiple warnings over a designated period. If the developer still refused to comply, the app store would be required to remove the app from its store.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-MS, said these measures would empower Americans to safeguard their families from exploitation.

"Our adversaries will exploit every available tool, including popular apps that gather huge amounts of data on Americans, to gain an advantage over the United States," Wicker said. "It is crucial for users to take steps to limit their exposure and be made aware of the risks associated with using foreign-controlled apps."