00:00It's back. Chair recognizes Ms. Tlaib from Michigan.
00:03Thank you, Chairman Comer. You know, Americans are rightfully worried.
00:08I know the professor knows and probably hears from a lot of folks about corporations
00:14and how our government is allowing them, like 23andMe and others, to use and sell deeply personal information,
00:22including medical and genetic data.
00:24Sometimes I want to tell my colleagues, and I'm glad to hear some of them speak up about this,
00:29because sometimes I feel like our country is gradually turned into a surveillance state
00:33where everything about who we are, what we do is generating private profit and leave us without any privacy.
00:42Surveillance pricing in grocery stores? Come on.
00:45The NSA spying on our private communications.
00:50Insurance companies using discriminatory factors based on our private medical and genetic history.
00:57I don't know any American, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Independent,
01:02whatever the labels that they put out, wants to live like that.
01:05No one does.
01:06So, Professor, who, you know, how can we ensure that genetic data of 15 million users,
01:12as you mean being put for sale, won't be used for private actors?
01:15And I just wanted to be clear.
01:16I know everybody's talking about China, but I'm actually really worried about corporate greed here in our country
01:21and the corporations here in our country that, you know, to me, corporate greed in our country is a disease.
01:28It is causing more death.
01:29I don't care if it's a fossil fuel industry, what my residents call sick care, not health care in our country, whatever it is.
01:35But I'm really worried, Professor, because, Professor, who, I can see health care insurance companies using data saying,
01:43oh, your genetics shows you might get breast cancer, we're not going to cover you, you're not going to get life insurance,
01:48you're not going to be able to get access.
01:49Or they're going to, again, use this to profit, not to help.
01:55We don't seem to prevent death and destruction in our country.
02:00Even this chamber doesn't do that.
02:03And so what can we do?
02:05I mean, this is genetical medical, you know, history, as you know.
02:10It's incredibly important, especially, you know, I know a lot of ethnic and racial heritage is also mixed up in there,
02:16and you saw them targeting folks of Jewish faith.
02:20And some of, again, it's just, to me, watching this happen.
02:24And then we do nothing.
02:25We'll have this hearing.
02:26And I know Chairman Comer is trying to do his best, but we're going to have this hearing,
02:30but are we going to actually update HIPAA?
02:32Are we going to actually do something to push back against, you know, profit for this kind of data and information?
02:39Thank you so much, Congressman, for that question.
02:41And I do think that this is a moment to assess first principles in our commitment to the Constitution.
02:46And to what extent does the increasing privatization and modification of this data come into conflict with our core values,
02:55but not only just our constitutional values, our national security interests,
03:00and the way in which our national security interests are infused by these fundamental commitments to rights and liberty and freedom
03:07and expressive rights and privacy rights as anchoring how we see, you know, ourselves as a nation.
03:15So, you know, your question about, you know, what can we do to stop drifting into a surveillance state?
03:20I do think that one of the things that we need to make sure that we understand is that our ability, I believe,
03:29for us to remain dominant geopolitically is not about deregulation or devolution of the regulations around data privacy, cybersecurity, and AI,
03:40but leaning into them so that we can make sure that these systems unfold safely and securely.
03:46And other nations are now embracing these types of legal regimes, including China, and we are not.
03:54And I think that that puts us at a great national security disadvantage.
03:58I agree.
03:59I think for many of our colleagues here, you know, expressing on X your concern and everything about, like, again, privacy is important,
04:07but I think we need really comprehensive data that, you know, protects the Americans' private data.
04:13I mean, this is literally going to be a fight between those that want the corporate greed and the government surveillance
04:19and how overreaching that is because it is, again, going to be profit before the people.
04:24And many of them are going to 23andMe because they want to live.
04:28They want to live.
04:29They don't want to get sick.
04:30They want to preventive care.
04:32And I know, like, there are, you know, the Trump administration right now is destroying privacy protections.
04:38I see it, raiding private Social Security data, tax info, bank account numbers, you name it.
04:42I'm really concerned about this growing factor.
04:45But I also want many of my colleagues to know, I mean, Trump is now working with data and surveillance companies,
04:50like, what is it, Plantier?
04:51Is that how you say it?
04:52I mean, look at this.
04:53To compile databases on Americans.
04:57First to target immigrants.
04:59They always start there.
05:00And then they're going to target, you know, it's going to be our neighbor, other folks.
05:04It's going to be unbelievable because, you know, Peter T. Hall and Alex Karp,
05:11who made it clear that they care more about political domination than American democracy or individual privacy.
05:18I say this because we're talking about 23andMe, but understand there's a bigger movement in our country
05:23that we need to put in check right now because they don't care about us.
05:27They don't care about the folks that put us here and told us to protect them.
05:32And so I think it's really important, Chairman, after this hearing, let's not just have it in the congressional record.
05:37Let's actually do legislation to hold them accountable.
05:39With that, I yield.
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