[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1732 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1732

To require application stores to publicly list the country of origin of 
  the applications that they distribute, and to provide consumers the 
                     ability to protect themselves.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 18, 2023

Mr. Scott of South Carolina (for himself, Mr. Wicker, and Mr. Lankford) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
           Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require application stores to publicly list the country of origin of 
  the applications that they distribute, and to provide consumers the 
                     ability to protect themselves.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Know Your App Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) Minors engaging with internet-linked applications face 
        heightened susceptibility to privacy risks and potential 
        exploitation through those applications. It is crucial for 
        parents and guardians to possess comprehensive knowledge about 
        the applications being accessed so that they can make informed 
        decisions to protect their children.
            (2) Many users are unaware of the country of origin of the 
        applications they download and use, as well as the data 
        handling practices of the developers behind those applications. 
        This lack of transparency can lead to potential risks for 
        users, including exposure to foreign government surveillance, 
        data breaches, and privacy violations. Users have a right to 
        know baseline information on the country of origin so that they 
        can personally make decisions to mitigate the threat to their 
        personal and biometric information.
            (3) The potential for foreign governments to access user 
        data through internet-linked applications presents national 
        security risks. These risks may include the collection of 
        sensitive information, espionage, and potential influence over 
        critical infrastructure.
            (4) Increasing transparency and providing users with the 
        necessary information to make informed decisions about the 
        applications they download can help protect consumer privacy 
        and security.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that covered 
companies and developers already posses the information necessary to 
provide adequate transparency to consumers.

SEC. 3. PUBLIC LISTING OF COUNTRY OF ORIGIN OF APPLICATIONS.

    (a) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Application.--The term ``application'' means a software 
        application or electronic service that may be run or directed 
        by a user on a computer, a mobile device, or any other general 
        purpose computing device.
            (2) Application store.--The term ``application store'' 
        means a publicly available website, software application, 
        electronic service, or platform provided by a device 
        manufacturer that--
                    (A) distributes applications from third-party 
                developers to users of a computer, a mobile device, or 
                any other general purpose computing device; and
                    (B) has more than 20,000,000 users in the United 
                States.
            (3) Application store page.--The term ``application store 
        page'' means the individual, dedicated listing page within an 
        application store that serves as the primary source of 
        information on a specific application and provides detailed 
        information about the application, including the name of the 
        application, the developer, a description, user ratings and 
        reviews, screenshots or previews, pricing, and system 
        requirements.
            (4) Assistant secretary.--The term ``Assistant Secretary'' 
        means the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications 
        and Information.
            (5) Beneficial owner.--The term ``beneficial owner''--
                    (A) means, with respect to a developer of an 
                application, an individual who, directly or indirectly, 
                through any contract, arrangement, understanding, 
                relationship, or otherwise--
                            (i) exercises substantial control over the 
                        developer; or
                            (ii) owns or controls not less than 25 
                        percent of the ownership interests of the 
                        developer; and
                    (B) does not include--
                            (i) a minor child, as defined in the State 
                        in which the entity is formed, if the 
                        information of the parent or guardian of the 
                        minor child is reported in accordance with this 
                        section;
                            (ii) an individual acting as a nominee, 
                        intermediary, custodian, or agent on behalf of 
                        another individual;
                            (iii) an individual acting solely as an 
                        employee of a corporation, limited liability 
                        company, or other similar entity and whose 
                        control over or economic benefits from such 
                        entity is derived solely from the employment 
                        status of the individual;
                            (iv) an individual whose only interest in a 
                        corporation, limited liability company, or 
                        other similar entity is through a right of 
                        inheritance; or
                            (v) a creditor of a corporation, limited 
                        liability company, or other similar entity, 
                        unless the creditor meets the requirements of 
                        subparagraph (A).
            (6) Country of concern.--The term ``country of concern'' 
        means a country that is on the list described in section 4.
            (7) Country of origin.--The term ``country of origin''--
                    (A) with respect to the developer of an 
                application, means the country in which the developer 
                is headquartered or principally operates; and
                    (B) with respect to the beneficial owner of the 
                developer of an application--
                            (i) except as provided in clause (ii), 
                        means the country from which the beneficial 
                        owner principally exercises control over the 
                        developer; and
                            (ii) if the beneficial owner exercises any 
                        control over the developer from a country of 
                        concern, means that country.
            (8) Covered company.--The term ``covered company'' means 
        any person, entity, or organization that owns, controls, or 
        operates an application store that serves customers in the 
        United States.
            (9) Developer.--The term ``developer'' means a person that 
        creates, owns, or controls an application and is responsible 
        for the design, development, maintenance, and distribution of 
        the application to end users through an application store.
            (10) Primary country of origin.--The term ``primary country 
        of origin'', with respect to an application--
                    (A) except as provided in subparagraph (B), means 
                the country of origin of the developer of the 
                application; and
                    (B) if the country of origin of the beneficial 
                owner of the developer of the application is a country 
                of concern, means that country.
            (11) Prominent display.--The term ``prominent display'', 
        with respect to an application store page, means a banner that 
        is immediately and clearly visible when the application store 
        page is accessed.
    (b) Requirements.--
            (1) Public listing.--The Assistant Secretary shall require 
        a covered company to publicly list, in a prominent display on 
        the application store page, the primary country of origin of 
        each application distributed through an application store 
        owned, controlled, or operated by the covered company.
            (2) Protections regarding certain foreign countries.--
                    (A) Filter for certain applications.--The Assistant 
                Secretary shall require a covered company to provide 
                users of the covered company's application store with 
                the option to filter out applications whose primary 
                country of origin is a country of concern.
                    (B) Disclaimer for certain applications.--The 
                Assistant Secretary shall require that if the primary 
                country of origin of an application is a country of 
                concern, a covered company that distributes the 
                application through an application store shall provide 
                a disclaimer, in a prominent display on the application 
                store page, that data from the application could be 
                accessed by a foreign government.
            (3) Update of information.--
                    (A) In general.--The Assistant Secretary shall 
                require a developer to notify a covered company whose 
                application store distributes the developer's 
                application of any change in--
                            (i) the country of origin of the developer;
                            (ii) the beneficial owner of the developer; 
                        or
                            (iii) the country of origin of the 
                        beneficial owner of the developer.
                    (B) Developer certification.--
                            (i) In general.--The Assistant Secretary 
                        shall require a developer to certify to each 
                        covered company that owns, controls, or 
                        operates an application store through which the 
                        developer's application is distributed, not 
                        less frequently than annually, that the 
                        information displayed on the application store 
                        page with respect to the application, including 
                        primary country of origin and beneficial 
                        ownership, is up-to-date.
                            (ii) Violations.--If a developer violates 
                        clause (i)--
                                    (I) the covered company shall issue 
                                the developer a series of not fewer 
                                than 3 warnings over a period of not 
                                more than 90 days; and
                                    (II) if the developer does not 
                                correct the violation by the date that 
                                is 90 days after the date on which the 
                                first warning is issued under subclause 
                                (I), the covered company shall remove 
                                the application of the developer from 
                                the application store.
            (4) Reporting mechanism.--The Assistant Secretary shall 
        require a covered company to establish a mechanism that--
                    (A) allows a user of the covered company's 
                application store, an employee of a developer whose 
                application is distributed through the covered 
                company's application store, or an associated third 
                party to report a potential violation of this 
                subsection by a developer, including incorrect 
                information displayed on the application store page; 
                and
                    (B) allows a report under subparagraph (A) to be 
                made anonymously.
            (5) Written policy for appeals of removals.--The Assistant 
        Secretary shall require a covered company to establish, for any 
        application store owned, controlled, or operated by the covered 
        company, a clear written policy for how a developer can appeal 
        the removal of an application from the application store and 
        have the application be reinstated.

SEC. 4. LIST OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES WITH NATIONAL LAWS RESULTING IN 
              GOVERNMENT CONTROL OVER APPLICATIONS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of the 
Treasury and the Secretary of Commerce shall jointly develop and submit 
to Congress a list of each foreign country that has in effect a 
national law that may subject a developer or application to control by 
the government of the country over content moderation, algorithm 
design, or user data transfers.
    (b) Publication.--With respect to the list developed under 
subsection (a)--
            (1) the Secretary of the Treasury shall make the list 
        publicly available on the website of the Department of the 
        Treasury; and
            (2) the Secretary of Commerce shall make the list publicly 
        available on the website of the Department of Commerce.

SEC. 5. LIMITATION OF ENFORCEMENT AND REGULATION.

    The Assistant Secretary may not exercise any enforcement authority 
or regulatory authority over a covered company or developer that is not 
provided under this Act, including through rulemaking.

SEC. 6. ENFORCEMENT.

    The Attorney General may bring a civil action in an appropriate 
district court of the United States against any covered company that 
violates this Act.
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