Capital District Times

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and Senator Tom Cotton have introduced a bill that aims to prevent the Department of Defense from utilizing a Communist Chinese-owned tutoring service for service members and their families. Stefanik expressed her concerns by stating, “We cannot allow Communist China to collect an arsenal of data on our service members and their families that can be weaponized against them, posing a grave and unnecessary threat to America’s national security.” Senator Cotton also emphasized the importance of this legislation, saying, “There is no reason the Pentagon should be paying a Chinese-owned service that collects the data of our service members and their families.”

The Department of Defense currently uses Tutor.com, owned by Communist Chinese company Primavera Capital Group, to provide tutoring services for U.S. military members and their families worldwide. However, concerns have been raised due to Primavera being subject to Chinese national security laws, which require releasing confidential business and customer data directly to the Chinese Communist Party. Tutor.com collects personal data on users, including location, internet protocol addresses, and contents of tutoring sessions.

This move is significant in safeguarding sensitive information and upholding national security standards. The bill introduced by Stefanik and Cotton aims to protect service members and their families from potential data breaches and threats posed by foreign entities.