Hillicon Valley — Roe reversal renews data privacy calls

The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade has led Democrats to push for action on proposals to protect Americans seeking abortions from being targeted with their personal data.

In other news, a California-based crypto firm announced on Thursday night that hackers stole $100 million worth of cryptocurrency.

This is Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Send tips to The Hill’s Rebecca Klar, Chris Mills Rodrigo and Ines Kagubare. Subscribe here.

Abortion ruling spurs push for data privacy

Supporters of proposals to protect data that could provide information about people seeking abortions are pushing for swift action after the Supreme Court’s Friday decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

• Democrats are weighing responses to the 6-3 court decision that will trigger abortion bans in 13 states, and likely lead to severe restrictions in others.
  
• Supporters of key data privacy proposals said it is urgent to ensure Americans’ location, search and call data isn’t used to target people seeking abortions.

“We need to make sure that we in Congress are doing everything we can to protect people’s most sensitive and personal data, their reproductive and sexual health data, so that it can’t be used against them, especially in the states that are going to be criminalizing abortion,” said Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), the lead House sponsor of a bill aimed at protecting reproductive health data. 

Without additional protections, users’ location, search and calling data can be easily accessed and shared with law enforcement in ways that could be used to target people seeking abortions, especially in states that ban or severely restrict the procedure.

Read more here. 

Hackers make off with $100 million in crypto

Harmony, a California-based crypto firm, announced on Thursday night that hackers have stolen $100 million worth of cryptocurrency from one of its blockchain bridges. 

• The company said on Twitter that it has partnered up with law enforcement and forensic specialists to try to identify the hackers and retrieve the stolen funds.
  
• “Harmony is working around the clock as we continue our investigation alongside the FBI and multiple cyber security firms,” the company tweeted. 

In a blog post, the company said its team has attempted to reach out to the hacker with an embedded message sent to the culprit’s crypto wallet address. 

The theft is the latest crypto hack to occur in the last two months.

Read more here. 

NEW BILL TO RESTRICT DATA PURCHASE OF US CITIZENS

A bipartisan group of senators on Thursday unveiled legislation aimed at restricting the ability of foreign adversaries to purchase data about American citizens. 

• The Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Surveillance Act would direct the Commerce secretary to identify kinds of personal data that could harm national security if exported. 
  
• The agency would then determine which countries are “low risk” and which are “high risk.”

Low-risk countries would be allowed to import data without restrictions, while high-risk ones would see exports of data be presumptively denied.

All other countries would require license for bulk exports of data identified as potentially harmful.

Read more here

BITS & PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: Affordable Connectivity Program needs permanent funding 

Notable links from around the web: 

Video game industry on the end of Roe: I’m ‘not proud to be an American’ (The Washington Post / Teddy Amenabar) 

Ads Are Officially Coming to Netflix. Here’s What That Means for You (TIME / Megan McCluskey)  

Wall Street Banks Quietly Test Cyber Defenses at Treasury’s Direction (Bloomberg / Christopher Condon and Craig Torres) 

📍 Clickable: Where abortion stands in states after Roe

One more thing: Netflix layoffs

Netflix has laid off 300 employees in a second round of layoffs after letting go 150 workers last month as the company tries to cut costs amid a downturn in revenue growth.

A Netflix spokesperson confirmed the layoffs to The Hill on Thursday, saying the company is continuing to “significantly” invest in its business but needed to make the move to ensure costs are growing in line with the slower revenue growth. 

“We are so grateful for everything they have done for Netflix and are working hard to support them through this difficult transition,” the spokesperson said of the laid-off employees in a statement.  

Read more here.

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Technology and Cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you next week.

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